Cubans have to wait more for their new President; Raul Castro’s term extended

Havana, December 22: Cuba extended the term of its current leadership to April on Thursday, signaling a two-month delay in the historic handover from Raul Castro to a new president, while announcing tighter regulations on the non-state sector.

Cuban officials said the island was still dealing with the aftermath of the killer storm and needed to postpone long-held plans for Castro, 86, to retire on February 24, 2018, when his second five-year term ends. It was to have been the first time that Cuba was ruled by a leader not named Castro since the 1959 revolution that swept Raul Castro's older brother Fidel Castro to power.

The National Assembly of Cuba said that devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma in September had caused a delay to the start of the political cycle in which voters and electoral commissions pick delegates of municipal, provincial and national assemblies who then select a Council of State and president.

As a result, the assembly, which is holding one of its twice-yearly meetings, extended its term through to April 19.

“When the National Assembly is constituted, I will have concluded my second and last mandate, and Cuba will have a new president,” Castro said, according to state-run media.

A new leader in Havana could provide a badly needed reset for US-Cubans relations, which improved under President Obama but then were rolled back by the Trump administration.