Cuba has completed all preparations for the elections of a new president
and other national leaders, the top electoral official said yesterday.
The elections will proceed today as scheduled, President of the National
Electoral Commission and Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus told the official
daily Granma.
The Cuban National Assembly of People's Power will be convened today, when
the 614 deputies elected last month will be called to create the country's new
legislature.
The deputies, who are to serve a five-year-term, will choose the assembly's
president, vice president and secretary-general.
Under Cuba's constitution, the national assembly chooses 31 of its members to
form the Council of State, whose leader will be Cuba's president.
Sunday's vote will determine the successor to retired Cuban leader Fidel
Castro, who announced on Tuesday that he would not accept the presidency of the
Council of State.
