[NYTr] Fidel and Raul Nominated for National Parliament

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Fidel and Raul Nominated for National Parliament

Havana, Dec 3 (acn) The nomination as candidates for the National 
Parliament of Cuban President Fidel Castro and Vice President Raul 
Castro was approved on Sunday by two municipal assemblies in the 
eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

Fidel's candidacy was unanimously approved by the assembly of the 
Santiago de Cuba municipality while Raul's nomination also received 
unanimous support in the municipality of Segundo Frente.

Also nominated and approved as candidates for the National Parliament 
in Santiago de Cuba were Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida, 
Vice-President of the Council of State Jose Ramon Balaguer and Misael 
Enamorado, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in this 
province.

During this session of the municipal assembly of Santiago de Cuba, the 
most populated municipality on the island, other 20 candidates for the 
National Parliament were elected. Delegates also chose the candidates 
for the provincial assembly, which will have 103 members and will be 
elected on January 20, 2008, during the second stage of the national 
general elections.

In the meantime, the current President of Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, 
and Vice President Carlos Lage were also unanimously elected on Sunday 
as candidates for Parliament in the municipality of Plaza de la 
Revolucion in the Cuban capital.

                             ***

Miami Herald's resentful take on this story:

sent by Jane Franklin

Miami Herald

Posted on Sun, Dec. 02, 2007

Castro nominated for parliament; chance he could remain president

City council officials in eastern Cuba nominated Fidel Castro for a 
parliament seat Sunday, a position the ailing 81-year-old must hold if he 
wants to remain the communist-run island's president after national 
elections in January.

The nomination was another step in a process that will eventually determine 
Castro's political status. He still heads Cuba's supreme governing body, the 
Council of State. But he has not been seen in public since emergency 
intestinal surgery forced him to cede power to a provisional government run 
by his younger brother Raul in July 2006.

Members of municipal assemblies in Castro's home province of Santiago 
nominated him for parliament, known as the National Assembly. If he agrees 
to be a candidate and is re-elected during national elections Jan. 20, 
Castro will remain in the running for another term as Council of State 
president.

Cuba elects National Assembly members every five years. Several weeks after 
a new slate of members is chosen, parliament convenes to choose the Council 
of State. Castro has held the council's presidency since it was created in 
1976. Previously Cuba's prime minister, he has been the nation's 
unchallenged leader since leading a successful revolution 1959.

The 76-year-old Raul Castro is currently the council's first vice
president, though he has run Cuba's government since his better-known
brother stepped aside.