Prince Ali seeks postponement of FIFA presidential election

FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali is asking for Friday’s election to be suspended in a dispute over voting procedures.

The Jordanian prince’s lawyers said on Tuesday they are seeking “provisional measures” from the Court of Arbitration for Sport to postpone the vote to select Sepp Blatter’s successor. The lawyers said in a statement that FIFA turned down Prince Ali’s request for the use of transparent voting booths, a move they said will deny “any right to a fair and transparent voting process.”

The statement said Prince Ali took the matter to CAS on Monday. The lawyers, Francis Szpiner and Renaud Semerdjian, said FIFA had rejected Prince Ali’s offer to have transparent booths sent to Zurich for the vote. They said FIFA was only requesting that voters leave their mobile phones behind when they go to the voting booths. “This request is not sufficient,” the statement said. “FIFA remains silent upon the measures to enforce it and sanctions associated with it.”

FIFA turned down a demand for an expedited hearing on Prince Ali’s request, the lawyers said.

“This behavior bears no rationale other than denying any right to a fair and transparent voting process,” the statement said. “As a consequence, we are now seeking provisional measures before CAS to suspend the coming election.”

Ali is one of five candidates in the race, along with Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale and former FIFA executive Jerome Champagne of France.