The end of the story is still between huge question marks. It's a thriller. Although it can also end up as a horror one. For now, the elections in Boca are suspended and without a date. At the close of this edition, it seemed unlikely, although not impossible, that the elections will be held this Sunday in a Bombonera prepared for the occasion with three giant tents that occupy the playing field. This Thursday, as it was seen coming, the conciliation between the ruling party and the opposition failed. Will they agree and arrive in time to comply with the electoral act in a timely manner? Or will we have to wait for the investigation to move forward and thus the final ruling of Judge Alejandra Abrevaya? Is it possible that the club will be intervened by the IGJ? Is there a chance that the mandate of the current Board of Directors could be extended?
It's better to take it one step at a time.
The meeting at Commercial Court No. 11 of the Palace of Courts lasted about four hours. On the side of the ruling party that supports the candidacy of Juan Román Riquelme, the negotiators were Ricardo Rosica, general secretary of the club and a trusted man in the former footballer's circle, and the lawyer Walter Krieger. Representing the electoral front that proposes Andrés Ibarra as president and Mauricio Macri as vice-president, was the lawyer Javier Medín, who is part of the opposition list and who has as a background having been the head of the Legal Department of Boca during Macri's presidency, secretary of Legal and Institutional Affairs in Angelici's time and vice president of the Normalization Commission that intervened in the AFA in 2017 after the scandalous 38 to 38. He was seconded by Sebastián Silvestri, who also served as a member of the Electoral Board during the eight years of Angelicismo.
Judge Abrevaya received both parties to unblock the conflict that was generated from the judicial investigation that, after a technical expertise and sampling, detected irregularities in 13,364 members who were part of the electoral registry. According to the complaint endorsed by the Justice, they were transferred from the category of adherents to active ones in breach of the club's internal regulations.
The ruling party, from the start, admitted that only about 3,600 members had gone from adherents to active members in a very short period of time during the end of 2021 and that they had not been the 13,364 that the opposition had objected to. In an effort to ensure that the elections were held on Sunday, Rosica and Krieger offered that all the objected members vote at separate tables so that they could be identified. If the winner prevailed by a larger margin, there would be an undisputed winning formula. But if that did not happen, the outcome of the elections would be subject to the court ruling. The opposition did not accept it in "any way" considering that it would be difficult to go back to review once a winner was known.
Medín and Silvestri, for their part, proposed that each party choose an expert and that the Justice Department place another to carry out, partner by partner, the purging of the registry in the next few hours. In this way, the date of the elections was put on standby. If they arrived in time, they could even vote on Sunday. And if the working hours were not enough, they proposed December 17 as a new date. In this case, the ruling party was the one that opposed it.
Javier Medín, lawyer who represented the opposition in the conciliation. Photo: Clarín
"There was no agreement, but we continue to work to prevent them from continuing to hurt the club. We presented all the evidence that was required of us. We did everything the right way. You know that in 2019 we made the same claim and we have not been as lucky as they are to find a judge to stop the election. We have gone out to vote and nothing else. We're going to keep working," Rosica lamented as she left the courthouse. And he concluded: "They are hindering the event, we wanted a party with our partners on Sunday." Boca will appeal the ruling and it will be the courts that will have to establish which of the parties is right and, finally, when the date of the elections will be. One detail: if some private negotiations progress, the possibility of the elections being held on Sunday or, at the latest, on 17 December, should not be taken for granted.
Late in the afternoon, the opposition released a statement blaming the ruling party for the postponement of the elections. "Unidos por Boca wants to vote on December 3. Unfortunately, due to the intransigence of the ruling party in keeping the irregularities verified by the courts, the members of Boca will not be able to elect the authorities of the club as we did during 118 years of history. In today's hearing, representatives of the current leadership refused to resolve the issue by reviewing the 13,364 members who were passed from adherents to active members at their discretion, without respecting the seniority and rights of other members," the message begins.
Riquelme was present on El Loco y el Cuerdo in a late-night broadcast. Photo: Capture video.
And he continues: "At our request, the Justice made available a new computer expert to purge the electoral roll tomorrow at the club's offices, with the possibility that both parties will be present with a technical consultant. As a sign of our goodwill, from Unidos Por Boca we offered to advance that work this afternoon to get to vote on Sunday. The ruling party refused. From Unidos Por Boca we want to vote as soon as possible in a transparent way and without cheating. We hope that the ruling party will have the same objective."
According to Clarín, the ruling party, while working on the appeal, plans to convene an Assembly of Members' Representatives for this Friday at 19 p.m. That is the body that, if necessary, should process the extension of Ameal's mandate. The opposition remains firm in its intention to review the 13,634 members who, in its opinion, are tricks. "They put sticks in the wheel. They admitted they put in 4,000. We will follow what the justice system indicates," said an opposition source, who flatly dismissed the idea that they will ask for the club's intervention in the event that the elections are postponed to 2024. "We want the elections to be held and we want to win," they say. The same thing, what a coincidence, they say from the other side of the counter.