₦airaland Forum

Cuba scrapped the maximum age limit of 60 for its presidential candidates as part of a constitutional reform approved Friday by parliament.

The communist-ruled island’s restriction of two five-year presidential terms and minimum age of 35 for candidates were left unchanged.

The measure, approved by the Council of State, imposes no age limits on people “in the full exercise of their physical and mental faculties, with… loyalty and revolutionary trajectory,” national assembly president Esteban Lazo said.

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.

Cuba’s current president, 65-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was elected in 2018 and then re-elected in 2023. No favored successor has been publicly designated.

The inclusion of term and age limits in the 2019 constitution marked a radical shift after the six decades in which Fidel Castro and his brother Raul were in power.

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.

Raul 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.

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.

AFP

Factcheck0001:
I wish Nigeria can do this

But we all know those people who are hell bent on calling a 65 year old man a youth

BewareOf419:
But here in Nigeria, you'll see a man of 80 still contesting whereas someone lied about his DOB just because he is above 80 claiming 70 while his first child is 60!

WesleyPepper:
Oga, they’ve removed age limit .
Is that not why Nigeria is practicing at the moment ?

Age limit of 60 years is better but it is not in tandem with democracy

Factcheck0001:
I wish Nigeria can do this

But we all know those people who are hell bent on calling a 65 year old man a youth

Eriokanmi:
Cuba has come up with lots of reforms recently. I see them struggling to pull themselves out of underdeveloped nations, kudos. I'd say 65 years limit isn't bad. Atiku will be 80 years soon and the guy is even limping right now. I don't blame them anyway. I only blame those following them

BewareOf419:
But here in Nigeria, you'll see a man of 80 still contesting whereas someone lied about his DOB just because he is above 80 claiming 70 while his first child is 60!

Factcheck0001:
I wish Nigeria can do this

But we all know those people who are hell bent on calling a 65 year old man a youth

Eriokanmi:
Cuba has come up with lots of reforms recently. I see them struggling to pull themselves out of underdeveloped nations, kudos. I'd say 65 years limit isn't bad. Atiku will be 80 years soon and the guy is even limping right now. I don't blame them anyway. I only blame those following them

blingxx:
So nobody actually read the write up procrastinators

Felabrity:
Country wey serious

Imagine expecting old cargoes in their 80s to turn a country around

Factcheck0001:
I wish Nigeria can do this

But we all know those people who are hell bent on calling a 65 year old man a youth

Felabrity:
Country wey serious

Imagine expecting old cargoes in their 80s to turn a country around

BewareOf419:
But here in Nigeria, you'll see a man of 80 still contesting whereas someone lied about his DOB just because he is above 80 claiming 70 while his first child is 60!

Factcheck0001:
I wish Nigeria can do this

But we all know those people who are hell bent on calling a 65 year old man a youth