Madrid, June 8 (IANS) Florentino Perez has successfully retained his position as the Real Madrid president until 2030, emerging victorious in the club’s first contested election in two decades.

According to the official data released by the club’s Electoral Board in the early hours of Monday, the 79-year-old secured a convincing victory by capturing 65 percent of the total votes counted.

Perez’s candidacy received 21,741 votes from the club’s member-owners (socios). His challenger, 37-year-old renewable energy entrepreneur Enrique Riquelme, put up a resilient fight to secure 11,814 votes, representing 35 per cent of the electorate.

“The Electoral Board of Real Madrid announces that, with 100% of the in-person and mail-in votes counted, the candidacy led by Mr. Florentino Perez has won the elections for president and the Board of Directors of Real Madrid. This candidacy received 21,741 votes, representing 65 per cent. The candidacy led by Mr. Enrique Riquelme received 11,814 votes, representing 35 percent,” Real Madrid said in a statement.

A total of 33,555 members exercised their franchise through in-person and mail-in ballots at the Real Madrid City Basketball Pavilion on Sunday.

“We have won the elections and will continue working to keep winning titles. We have won at all the polling stations and achieved the second-best result in the history of Real Madrid elections. We also achieved the first in 2004. It is an extraordinary result. And I must tell you that it could have been better because nearly a thousand mail-in votes were annulled, votes certified by a notary, due to procedural issues that we will appeal, as we believe we are in the right,” he said in his address following his re-election.

Perez’s victory means that Jose Mourinho should be formally announced as manager on Monday, with Madrid paying Benfica a 15m euro release fee for the Portuguese coach.

During his election campaign, Perez had pledged to bring back Mourinho, whose three years at Real Madrid saw the club win one La Liga title, one Copa del Rey and one Spanish Super Cup during a period where the club was slightly overshadowed by Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona.

The period was also marked by increasingly difficult relations between the two clubs and their respective players, widely considered a factor in Spain’s early exit from the 2014 World Cup.

–IANS

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