Havana, February 25: The official candidate list presented in Cuba's state leadership elections has reconfirmed Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro as president and first vice president, but proposed 14 new members of the 31 member council of state.The single list of 31 names, read on state radio yesterday, will be voted on by the deputies of Cuba's one party National Assembly later and is expected to be overwhelmingly endorsed.
This will re-elect the 71-year-old Cuban President for an another five-year term as head of state. Castro has ruled Cuba since the 1959 revolution he led, which toppled right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista. In the proposed council of state candidacy list, the top eight council positions -- the presidency, first vice-president, five other vice-presidency positions and secretary post -- remain unchanged.
The five council vice-presidents proposed for re-election are Carlos Lage, a key figure in Cuba's economic reform process, Juan Almeida Bosque, a veteran of the 1959revolution, Interior Minister Abelardo Colome Ibarra and senior Communist party figures Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Esteban Lazo Hernandez. But 14 new members are proposed to the state leadership body, the newcomers include Economy Minister Jose Louis Rodriguez and Labour Minister Salavdor Valdes.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
