Oriol Junqueras re-elected president of Esquerra Republicana

Oriol Junqueras has been re-elected president of pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana Catalan (ERC).

Junqueras, standing under the name Militància Decidim (The Membership Decides), won 52% of the vote, defeating Xavier Godàs of Nova Esquerra Nacional (New National Left), who won 42%.

There was a record turnout from party membership of 82% on Saturday in what was the second round of voting. The turnout in the first round was 81%.

Junqueras will therefore continue as president of Esquerra, a position he has held for 13 years, including a four-year period in prison for his role in the pro-independence push in 2017.

He stepped down temporarily as party leader in June after the party's poor results in the Catalan and European elections.

The party's new general secretary will be Elisenda Alamany, who replaces Marta Rovira as ERC's number two.

Militància Decidim, the candidacy of Junqueras and Alamany, won 3,437 votes (52.2% of the total). Nova Esquerra Nacional's candidacy of Godàs and Alba Camps won 2,777 votes (42.2%). There were 371 blank votes (5.6%).

Call for unity

After a bitterly fought election campaign, Junqueras called for party unity after his victory. 

"There is only one party in ERC," he told party members after his re-election.

Godàs and Camps congratulated the winning candidates but warned that the party was "divided."

Alamany described the internal campaign as "long and hard" in an interview with Catalonia Ràdio on Sunday morning, but emphasized that, now the voting is over, "everyone is the same party."

"The doors will always be open for everyone," she said.