A two-day session of Cuba’s National Assembly one-chamber parliament that begins on Wednesday is expected to choose a successor to the incumbent leader of the country, Raul Castro, TASS reported.

The 605 deputies will have a vote by ballot to elect the parliamentary leaders, the National Assembly president, the vice-president and another 29 members of the State Council. The Cuban Constitution says the State Council president is the head of state and government.

On April 19, the day on which the name of the new State Council president will be made public is quite emblematic for Cuba. It was on April 19, 1961, that the Cuban Armed Forces under Fidel Castro’s command defeated the interventionist forces trained by the CIA at Playa Giron beach.
Since the time of the revolution of 1959, a change of power took place in Cuba only on one occasion, in 2006, when the already seriously ill Comandante Fidel handed over the reins of government to his younger brother Raul.