MADRID, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Pedro Sanchez has been elected on Sunday as the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) new leader in the party's primary election where he competed against other two candidates, Susana Diaz and Patxi Lopez.
With 90.03 percent of the votes counted, the party informed that Sanchez garnered 49.8 percent of the total number of votes (more than 67,500 votes), as opposed to the 40.2 percent for Diaz (more than 54,000 votes) and 10.05 percent for Lopez (more than 13,500 votes).
Mario Jimenez, spokesperson of the management committee of the party said participation hit record high on Sunday reaching 80.91 percent.
The election has been mainly seen as a contest between Diaz, the regional president of Spain's southern region of Andalusia, and Sanchez, former leader of the party.
Spain's main opposition party has been in crisis for months when Pedro Sanchez resigned as a leader and a management committee took control of the party.
The party was seriously divided between those who supported abstention to allow Spain's current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to form a minority government led by Susana Diaz and those who wanted to vote against, led by Pedro Sanchez.
Diaz had the support of former Spanish Prime Ministers Felipe Gonzalez and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and represents the right of the party while Sanchez represents the left and Lopez represents a middle ground.
