Barça presidential elections postponed due to pandemic

The FC Barcelona presidential elections will not be held on January 24, as was scheduled, due to the ongoing health crisis. It is not yet known when the vote will be rescheduled for, but the interim board has reportedly proposed March 7 as an alternative date for the vote. 

In a meeting between club officials, the Civil Protection body, and government representatives on Friday, the three entities came to the conclusion that the elections could not go ahead as previously planned. 

Catalan government officials made it clear that club members could not break the municipal lockdown rules in force until January 24 at least in order to travel to vote in the election. 

It was planned that polling stations will be established in Barcelona (Camp Nou), Tarragona, Girona, Lleida, Andorra, Tortosa, Madrid, Valencia, Palma and Seville. The current measures in place in Catalonia to halt the spread of the coronavirus would leave tens of thousands of people unable to travel to any voting station. 

It also would have led to the strange scenario of one of the three candidates, Víctor Font, being unable to vote for himself as he lives in Granollers and would not be permitted to travel to any polling station. 

The club is also studying options to let members vote by mail, which would allow many more ‘socis’ to take part in the electoral process safely from their own homes. 

A decision on this proposal is expected to be announced next week.