Raul Castro pips Fidel Castro in vote count

HAVANA (Reuters) - It may be a sign of the times: ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro was pipped at the polls by his brother and designated successor Raul Castro, according to parliamentary election results published on Wednesday.

There were no surprises when Cubans ratified a single list of 614 candidates for the same number of seats in the National Assembly on Jan 20.

Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public since he was sidelined by stomach surgery 18 months ago, got 98.3 percent of the votes cast in the district he represents in Santiago, Cuba's second city.

But acting President Raul Castro won 99.4 percent of the ballots cast in his district in the same eastern province. It was the highest percentage in the country.

Cuba, one of the few communist states left in the world, faces a decisive moment on February 24, when the National Assembly must clarify whether Fidel Castro will continue as head of state or retire after almost half a century at the helm.

Emergency intestinal surgery for an undisclosed illness forced Castro, 81, to hand over the running of the government to his brother in July 2006 for the first time since he took power in a 1959 revolution.

He has only been seen in video and photographs since then, looking gaunt and frail.

Castro left his options open by again standing as a candidate for the National Assembly, but he recently hinted in a newspaper column that he might step down as head of state.

Voting is not obligatory in Cuba, although Cubans are expected to turn out to show their support for the one-party political system, and 96.9 percent of voters did so in this month's election.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle)