Cuba scraps maximum age limit of 60 for presidential candidates

A handout picture released by ACN (Cuban News Agency) shows Cuba’s President and First Secretary Miguel Diaz-Canel (2-R) attending a session of the Cuban Parliament in Havana on July 16, 2025. (Photograph: Handout / ACN / AFP)
Cuba has eliminated the maximum age limit of 60 for presidential candidates as part of a constitutional reform approved by parliament on Friday.

While the island nation retains its two-term, five-year limit and a minimum age requirement of 35, the new measure removes the upper age cap for those deemed to be in full physical and mental health and with a proven “revolutionary trajectory,” according to National Assembly President Esteban Lazo.

The change, endorsed by the Council of State, will apply from the 2028 presidential elections.

Among the first to support the reform was former president Raúl Castro, 94, who remains a member of the assembly.

Current President Miguel Díaz-Canel, now 65, was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2023. No clear successor has yet been named.

The 2019 constitution had introduced term and age limits—an unprecedented move after six decades of leadership under Fidel and then Raúl Castro. Fidel, who ruled Cuba for nearly 50 years, handed power to Raúl in 2006 due to illness and died in 2016. Raúl officially stepped down as president in 2018 and retired as Communist Party head in 2021.

Cuba is currently grappling with its worst economic crisis in 30 years, marked by widespread shortages, blackouts, and a surge in emigration.

AFP