Raul Castro was re-elected president of Cuba on Sunday and announced he will retire in 2018 after serving a second term of five years.
Mr Castro, 81, became interim president when his brother Fidel fell ill in 2006. He formally became president in 2008.
The National Assembly of People's Power elected Miguel Diaz-Canel, 52, as vice-president.
The former education minister thus becomes the president's de facto political heir.
He would be the first Cuban leader not to have taken part directly in the revolution of 1959.
Fidel Castro, 86, made a rare public appearance at the assembly on Sunday.
The Castro generation has ruled Cuba since the revolution in 1959.
