Maseru, April 01 — The winds of change prevailed at the Alliance od Democrats (AD) elective conference held at Leqele High School in Maseru on Saturday.
The delegates clad in the party’s regalia of predominantly white with red stripes and a black tree embedded on the T shirts were seen.
The Leqele High School yard which is always quiet on weekends which school children are not at attending classes, beamed with excitement as many vehicles full of the delegates were seen singing party songs with stickers of their favourite candidates placed on their cars.
The eyes will be on two prominent position for the leadership of the party in which the incumbent Leader Dr. Monyane Moleleki is being challenged by his long deputy Professor Ntoi Rapapa.
The security was tight in the Leqele premises with police presence visible to quell any disturbances but there were no signs of violence other than the delegates singing while others playing songs in their cars.
However, the Agency reporter was told that the party Leader opening remarks of the elective conference will be delayed due to late arrangements.
Dr. Moleleki was supposed to deliver his opening remarks at 10 am on Saturday but was now scheduled to make his speech in the afternoon instead.
During the week leading to the elective conference Dr. Moleleki held a press conference where he lambasted his deputy Leader questioning his loyalty to him and to the party as well.
He also dismissed rumours that he was destined for an Ambassador’s position in India, saying those reports lacked substance but were meant to derail his campaign to retain the party’s leadership.
Dr. Moleleki is the longest serving legislator in the country, dating as back as in 1993 when the country returned to democratic era following being ruled undemocratically under the reign of Basotho National Party (BNP) since 1970 under the premiership of the late Chief Leabua Jonathan.
He was first elected a Legislator under the then Basotho Congress Party (BCP) in the Senqunyane constituency and later dumped the party together with majority of BCP to form a new Lesotho Congress for Democracy led by their leader Dr.. Ntsu Mokhehle in 1997.
Dr.. Moleleki has also served as the legislator for Machache constituency for a long time until in 2022 when he represented elections in Thaba Bosiu but lost.
He is currently a legislator on Proportional Representation and has also been a cabinet minister in many portfolios in the past.
Dr. Moleleki left LCD with then party leader Dr. Pakalitha Mosisli in 2011 and became the deputy Leader of newly formed Democratic Congress (DC) but later defected to form his own AD party in 2017 and has been its leader since its formation.
On the contrary Professor Ntoi Rapapa’s history in politics started after the formation of AD where he became Minister of Education and Training as well as being Minister of Energy and Meteorology.
He is one of two AD legislators who won constituency elections after the October 07 National Assembly elections after defeating his brother to win the Mosalemane constituency.
Another AD legislator who won the constituency elections is Mr Mokoto Hloaele.
AD is currently one of the three political parties which formed an alliance with Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) to form a coalition government.
The party has only five seats in the 120 parliamentary seats but stand to lose one PR seat following a successful bid by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to seek a court approval to reallocate the PR seats and win.
Ends
