• Sánchez campaign advisors cite registration, campaign finance irregularities
• Vote for new party leader expected in mid-May, prior to June party conference
The campaign team surrounding former Socialist party leader Pedro Sánchez in his bid for re-election to the party leadership is blowing the whistle on what they say are irregularities in the registration of party militants in the run-up to the PSOE elections, scheduled to take place on as yet-unannounced date in May prior to the PSOE’s mid-June party conference.
Top campaign aides and advisors to Sánchez, who is seeking another term as PSOE general secretary after having been ousted in an internal party coup in October, have called on the interim commission guiding the party since Sánchez was pushed out of the party leadership to discuss allegedly restrictive registration requirements of several PSOE regional affiliate parties that they say are being used to block known Sánchez reporters from registering to vote.
In a letter last week delivered to party administrators in Madrid, the Sánchez campaign advisors also said they wanted to speak with party leaders about campaign finance practices in certain regions that they believe may be in violation of party regulations and are being used to favor Sánchez opponents in the election race.
Sanchez is facing off in the leadership race against erstwhile ally Patxi López, the former Basque regional president (Lehendakari) who served as president of the Congress under Sánchez last year, and Susana Díaz, leader of the Andalucian Socialist party and current president of Spain’s southernmost region, who has yet to announce her candidacy but is expected to do so on 26th March.
► Read More in Spanish at El Periódico, El Confidencial and 20minutos …
