Leemisa Thuseho
THE Lesotho Taekwondo Association (LTA) will on Saturday host its general elections with three candidates vying for presidency.
The presidency race will be between the former president Moshoeshoe Molapo, Nthati Theko and Likhama Leuta.
Theko and Leuta are the current committee’s vice president administration and vice president technical respectively.
Current president Moorosana Nkesi has said he will not contest after completing one term having come into power in 2017.
LTA was meant to have held its general elections in March this year but the plans were scuttled by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Last month, this paper reported Molapo’s plans of returning to LTA leadership. Molapo told the Lesotho Times that he was inspired to return after he was approached by some members if the association to run for presidency again.
He said he felt he was the right candidate because after his departure, the association failed to sustain some of the initiatives that he had started.
“We lost grassroots development programmes that conducted outreach programmes with the assistance of the World Taekwondo Pearce Corps Programmes,” Molapo said last month.
“Again, Lesotho is no longer participating in Para-Taekwondo Championship.”
Now that taekwondo is one of the sporting codes selected for the upcoming African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 games and the 2022 African Youth Games, both to be held in Lesotho, he hopes to make a meaningful impact.
Molapo is currently the president of the Southern African Taekwondo Association (COSATA). He is also a vice president of the African Police Taekwondo Association (APTAC), an executive member of the Commonwealth Taekwondo Union (CTU) and a CTU referees’ committee member. He is also a two-time Olympics referee.
The outgoing president, Nkesi is one of the candidates who proposed for Molapo’s return, Lesotho Times can reveal.
On Monday Theko and Leuta also confirmed that they were running for office. However, the duo was reluctant to comment any further.
“I can only confirm that that I am in the race… and that is only what I can say,” Leuta said.
LTA public relations officer Sek’hok’he Molikoe said all is set for the Saturday elections which will be held at a yet to be announced venue.
“We have not encountered any problems so far, so the elections are going on as planned,” Molikoe said.
He also mentioned that today is the last day for the submission of contesters names to be submitted.
