Cuba’s National Assembly met Feb. 24-25 to decide the course of its next five years. In so doing, President Raúl Castro’s closing remarks as well as the announcement of several new appointments caused considerable surprise.”

The biggest surprise was, of course, the selection of 52-year-old electronics engineer Miguel Díaz-Canel as first vice-president, replacing the elderly José Machado Ventura.

The latter remains vice-president (the Council of State consists of five VPs). The other two newly elected vice-presidents are forestry engineer Mercedes López Acea, 50, and black union leader Salvador Valdés Mesa, 68.

These changes in particular the replacement of Machado Ventura by Díaz-Canel sparked a wave of coverage in newspapers ranging from the New York Times to Spain’s El País. Some highlighted the importance of these changes while others dismissed them.

The new National Assembly will play a key role in discussing, validating and implementing two objectives over the next five years: replacing the old leadership with younger leaders from the post-revolution generation, and expanding reforms aimed at redesigning Cuban socialism including significant changes to the existing constitutional order.

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, who had headed the National Assembly since 1993, was replaced by Esteban Lazo Hernández, a 69-year-old black economist (see CubaNews, January 2013, page 3). Both men remain members of the Communist Party’s Politburo.

At the level of Cuba’s Council of State, 41.9% of its 31 members are women, while 38.6% are black or mestizo. The average age of its members is 57, and 61.3% of them were born after 1959.

Within the 612-member National Assembly, 48.9% are women, while 37.9% are black or mestizo. In addition, nearly 83% of its members have college degrees, and the average age is 48. Of Cuba’s 15 provincial assemblies, 10 are headed by women all with higher education and the average age is 47.

According to the electoral commission, the 612 diputados were elected by 52% of the votes, unlike the past, when they were elected by 97% or 98% of the popular vote. This was a clear indication that contrary to past elections where citizens were encouraged to vote for the entire slate known as el voto unido, voters now are casting their ballots on an individual basis, favoring not all but only those candidates of their own choosing, and explicitly not voting for others.

In his closing remarks, Raúl revealed that this would be his last term, after which the president by then 86 would step down. He also said legislators would be elected for no more than two five-year terms, and that an age cap would be enacted for key positions. He added that the biggest changes to Cuba’s constitution “will have to be ratified by the vote of the citizens by way of a referendum.”

Raúl argued that “the circumstances in which the country lives” obliges Cuba to maintain its one-party system, and that he’s shaping the island’s future leadership by “transferring key positions to the new generations in the course of the next five years, in an orderly and gradual way.”

Raúl said that path is aimed at “updating the Cuban economic model and achieving a prosperous and sustainable society, a less egalitarian society but more fair.”

On the issue of corruption, the president announced that in early July, the National Assembly would deal in detail with this “shameful matter.”

His final remarks covered the usual international topics, including Cuba’s responsibility to promote cooperation and understanding while it holds the rotating presidency of CELAC, and the government’s perennial demand for freedom of the “Cuban Five.”

The 612 diputados were then invited to watch a documentary on development of the Port of Mariel as the first big Zona Especial de Desarrollo (Special Development Zone, or ZED in Spanish).

Raúl noted that Cuba’s future will be closely intertwined with projects such as the one rising in Mariel, and that a new investment law aimed at promoting such projects will soon be enacted.

In a rather short period of time less than five years foreign observers on Cuba will be dealing with an entirely different set of players. A Cuban transition or redesign but not at all like the one prescribed during the George W. Bush presidency will be in place. By then, Cuba will be different in many ways, but following its own path.