Cubans voted Sunday to ratify a new National Assembly, a key step in a process leading to the elevation of a new president, the first in nearly 60 years from outside the Castro family.
The new members of the National Assembly will be tasked with choosing a successor to 86-year-old President Raul Castro when he steps down next month.
“The next president may not have that surname, but he will undoubtedly be a son of the Revolution,” the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.
Castro voted in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba while his first vice president and likely successor, Miguel Diaz-Canel, cast his ballot in the central Santa Clara province.
“The triumphal march of the revolution will continue,” Diaz-Canel said after voting, promising “peace, liberty, independence and the sovereignty of the people will endure.”
Raul Castro took over in 2006 from his ailing brother Fidel, who had governed since seizing power during the 1959 revolution.
Eight million Cubans were expected to turn out to ratify 605 candidates for an equal number of seats in the Assembly, a process short of suspense and unique to the Communist-run Caribbean island nation.
