* CUBA * AND CHALLENGES *

AS CUBAN PRESIDENT Raul Castro prepares to step down next month, ending his family's six-decade grip on power, his successor will be-

Faced with major challenges, including the implementation of economic reforms vital for the island's future.

On Sunday, Cubans went to the polls to ratify a new National Assembly, which will choose the future president. 

That transition will take place on April 19.

''We have walked a long, long, long and difficult toad,'' Castro said after casting his vote in Santiago de Cuba, the birthplace of the 1959 revolution spearheaded by his brother Fidel, who died in 2016, 10 years after handing power to Raul.

Raul who is now 86, will remain at the head of the all-powerful Communist Party of Cuba until the next Congress in 2021.

But his number two, Miguel Diaz Canel, is poised to take his place as president.

If Diaz-Canel does indeed assume the role, the discrete 57-year old vice president - the first Cuban leader to have not fought in the revolution - will be faced with the-

Balancing act of reform and staying true to the principles of ''Castroism''

Diaz-Canel insisted Sunday that ''the triumphant march of the revolution'' would continue.

But economist Pavel Vidal a former advisor to Raul Castro and now a professor at the Javieriana University in Cali, Colombia, said.

''The new government will arrive with limited political capital, less popular recognition and without historical legitimacy.''