Miguel Diaz-Canel was elected on Thursday as the new Cuban president, as the successor of the Army General Raul Castro, who concluded two consecutive five-year terms in office. The National Candidature Commission (NCC) nominated Diaz-Canel, first vice president of the Council of State, after the 57-year-olds name was proposed by the 604 National Assembly lawmakers to head the country. As the NCC finally announced Diaz-Canels name after months of speculation, he received a standing ovation and a hug from his mentor Raul Castro. Diaz-Canel has a rich political career aligned with the generation born after the triumph of 1959 and has been growing with the revolution since he became a student leader, Gisela Duarte, president of the NCC, said while proposing his name. Cuba also announced candidates for six vice presidential posts. Salvador Valdes Mesa, 72, a sitting vice president and member of the Politburo, was nominated as the new first vice president. Ramiro Valdes, 85, was proposed as one of the vice presidents in a significant move, thereby keeping in the future government a historical leader who fought in the liberation war along with the Castro brothers.
