Raul Castro re-elected as Cuba’s President

Havana: Raul Castro has been re-elected as Cuba’s President, with a new regime number two Council of State Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, official media said.

“The National Assembly of People’s Power today (Sunday) approved, in this capital, Army General Raul Castro Ruz as President of the Council of State, and elected Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, as its first Vice President,” according to a news agency report.

Among the five vice presidents on the Council of State as designated by the assembly was new blood: Mercedes Lopez Acea, 48. She had been the leader of the Communist Party’s Havana provincial assembly.

Raul Castro, now 81, became interim President when his brother, revolution icon Fidel, took ill in 2006. He then formally became president in 2008.

The National Assembly, whose members ran for office in October unopposed, also chose Esteban Lazo, 69, as their new Speaker.