Cuba Scraps Maximum Age Limit Of 60 For Presidential Candidates \u2022 Channels Television
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Cuba ended the maximum age limit of 60 for its presidential candidates as part of a constitutional reform approved Friday by parliament.<\/strong><\/p>\n The communist-ruled island\u2019s restriction of two five-year presidential terms and minimum age of 35 for candidates were left unchanged.<\/p>\n The measure, approved by the Council of State, imposes no age limits on people \u201cin the full exercise of their physical and mental faculties, with\u2026 loyalty and revolutionary trajectory,\u201d national assembly president Esteban Lazo said.<\/p>\n Former president Raul Castro, who at age 94 still holds a seat in the assembly, was the first to vote for the reform that will be on the books for the 2028 presidential elections.<\/p>\n Cuba\u2019s current president, 65-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was elected in 2018 and then re-elected in 2023. No favoured successor has been publicly designated.<\/p>\n The inclusion of term and age limits in the 2019 constitution marked a radical shift after six decades in which Fidel Castro and his brother Raul were in power.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n READ ALSO: South Korea\u2019s Ex-President Indicted For Power Abuse<\/p>\n In 2016, Fidel had to hand over the reins to his brother due to health problems. He died later that year, after nearly half a century leading Cuba.<\/p>\n Ra\u00fal Castro officially became president in 2008, at the age of 76. In 2021, he retired as Communist Party first secretary, handing over power to Diaz-Canel.<\/p>\n The nation of nearly 10 million people is suffering its worst economic crisis in three decades, with shortages of all kinds of supplies, power outages, and unprecedented emigration.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AFP<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n