Swallows lodge official protest
The Mazenod Premiership based-side Swallows has lodged an official protest against alleged irregularities on the People’s Cup voting counts.
This Blog has been reliably informed that the management of Swallows had lodged the protest with the Disciplinary and Protests Committee (DISPROCO) late yesterday.The inaugural football competition kicks-off this Saturday at Bocheletsane Stadium, with Bantu, LDF FC, Lioli and Linare qualifying for the play-offs with most fan votes.
Bantu amassed 91 683 fan votes, LDF 82 423, Lioli 75 151 and Linare 74 781.
Swallows have failed to
seal a place at the People’s Cup with just a difference of 50 votes separating them with Linare on fourth spot.
These are some of Swallows executive members, from left is the club Brand Development Manager Atang Tlopo, club President Mosa Seoli and a member Lechaba Setjeo during a press briefing in Maseru on Wednesday this week.
Swallows management alleged that there were irregularities during the voting process which they said might have resulted in their club losing numerous votes at the end of the day.
The club also said in the beginning they were placed with a wrong voting code and said they had evidence that some of their supporters voted using the wrong code unaware, only to realise after they voted that they were voting for another team and not Swallows.
“We have filed urgent application after PLMC (Premier League Management Committee) failed to respond to our letter of demand,” said one source.
“We first wrote to PLMC after the announcement of the final votes and gave them until 12 midnight on Wednesday to respond to our letter, but they did not respond, and as a result we wrote them a demand letter on Thursday and copied the letter to LeFA (Lesotho Football Association).”
The source said still, PLMC had not responded to Swallows’ letter of demand.
“PLMC once again had not responded to our letter. The only acknowledged that they have received our letter, only because they had realised that LeFA had already acknowledged that they had received a copy of our demand letter.”
Swallows management was yesterday hopeful that the case would be heard before the end of the day today.