MADRID, July 11 (Reuters) - Florentino Perez is
heading for a landslide victory in his bid to be re-elected as Real Madrid
president according to early exit polls on Sunday.
A poll run by Spanish sports daily Marca showed
that of 700 club members who had voted on Sunday morning, 661 said they had
voted for Perez, 25 for former president Lorenzo Sanz and 14 for third candidate
Arturo Baldasano.
Perez was already reported to have gained 11,034
postal votes from the 65,197 club members entitled to vote in the election,
while Baldasano had garnered 34.
Sanz, who had tried to have the election
postponed because of what he said were irregularities in the way Perez had
collected postal votes, had registered none.
Perez, who won a surprise victory over Sanz four
years ago, was in confident mood.
"I would be very surprised if I lost," he told
sports daily AS on Sunday.
"The club members know what my aims are and they
know that if they support me Real Madrid will construct a team that will make
history by recruiting the best players in the world every year."
He made no promises about which new players he
might sign, but has admitted that he has been negotiating with European
champions Porto to bring in defender Ricardo Carvalho and midfielder Costinha.
Polling ends at 1800 GMT, with the result
expected to be announced within three hours.
|