Citation counts are considered by promotion committees though. In this case, committee members are often from different fields and have less ability to judge the quality of the applicants' work for themselves.

None of the above matters in this particular case though—the problem is that Corchado was the only candidate on the ballot: "… taking advantage of the strange surprise resignation of the previous rector, and presenting himself as the only candidate. He received the support of 6.5% of the 33,000 university members who were called to vote, with half of the faculty voting blank as a sign of protest. "

This turned into a huge setback for Alzheimer's research specifically. Politicians and their ilk poured money into 'amyloid research' so to get money that's what you had to do, even though it was rather early on pretty well known among researchers that it wasn't a fruitful way forward.