FC Porto: the most competitive election in history

26,743 FC Porto members went to the polls; 1988 registration pulverized; Candidates praised the organization

This Saturday’s election was the most popular in FC Porto’s history, with 26,743 members exercising their right to vote. The vote not only shattered the 1988 registration, when of the 10,700 members, 10,371 voted for Pinto da Costa to continue, instead of the project proposed by Martins Soares, but also surpassed the maximum registered in Sporting’s 2018 election: 22,510 members.

The strong voter turnout was expected due to the strong mobilization capacity of André Villas-Boas’ candidacy, which, naturally, also attracted the electorate most identified with Pinto da Costa’s continuity project. Before this record number of votes, the most participated election since a century was 2020, despite being strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This vote lasted for two days and called for the presence of 8,480 members at the Dragão Arena.

It was 24 minutes late that the voting booths opened in Dragão yesterday morning. After the visible indignation of several members, List A explained what led to the slight delay, in the voice of Miguel Corte-Real, representative of the Pinto da Costa list: «There was a small delay, it is not the fault of List A or the list B, these are administrative processes, it’s not a day to do politics, it’s a day to celebrate. The delay was due to administrative issues, the members seem satisfied with the organization. There was a request from us, a request to change elements of the table, from people who for health or family reasons were unable to be there, so, in a process of transparency, we made a request to replace them – then B asked questions. It has already been granted. It’s natural,” he said.

Villas-Boas stressed that the delay left him “uneasy”, but praised the “resolution of operational situations.” Regarding the security and organization of the vote, the opinion was consensual: everything went well.