By IANS,
Havana : Cuban President Raul Castro has been re-elected for a second five-year term.
The 612-member National Assembly of People’s Power Sunday elected Castro, who turns 82 in June, as president of the State Council, Xinhua reported.
“The National Assembly of People’s Power today 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,” Cuba’s state-run National Information Agency (AIN) said.
Diaz-Canel replaces Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, who will serve as one of five vice presidents.
Diaz-Canel, 52, served previously as first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) for the central province of Villa Clara and the eastern province of Holguin, as well as minister of higher education.
Joining Machado Ventura as a vice president will be another stalwart of the Cuban revolution, Commander Ramiro Valdes.
Cuba’s outgoing vice president of the State Council Esteban Lazo was elected president of the National Assembly.
Lazo, a member of the politburo of the CCP since 1985, replaces Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, 75, who has led the assembly since 1993.
Lazo, who turns 69 Tuesday and is an economist by training, is considered part of the second generation of Cuban revolutionary leaders. The first group comprises the insurgents led by Fidel Castro who ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.