KVF welcomes 'new tune' at CAVB

"It's a huge relief that Amr Elwan is now out of the way and volleyball in Africa will take a fresh trajectory. He had become a burden," said Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) chairman, Waithaka Kioni, after the virtually conducted Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) elections on Sunday.

Morocco Volleyball Federation chairperson, Hajij Bouchra, was elected the new CAVB boss after amassing 42 votes to oust long-serving Egyptian Elwan, who got 12 votes to become the first woman to chair the Confederation.

Fifty-four National Federations affiliated to CAVB took part in the process that is conducted after four years.

Kioni, who also retained one of the six CAVB vice president positions during the election, said the continent had suffered at the hands of Elwan, who had been at the helm for 19 years.

"Accountability and bad governance was the main undoing of Elwan. It is sad that under his reign the sport in the continent had stagnated and with Bouchra, there is light at the end of tunnel. I know it is early in the day but, I have a good feeling that Bouchra's leadership will be different.

We were dancing to Elwan's music each and every passing year. For instance, most competitions including African Clubs Championship, as well as the Africa Cup of Nations were staged in Egypt.And going forward, I believe things will change," said Kioni, who is also the National Olympic Committee of Kenya(NOC-K) deputy president.

He is hopeful that the Federation International De Volleyball (FIVB) will revive its support for CAVB.

"FIVB had frozen its support for the continent because Elwan was not accountable. Previously, FIVB used to cater partly for the national teams traveling expenses for international events but they stopped. And I therefore hope they will revive their support since I believe Bouchra is transparent and she has a good will having been a player before before she went into administration" said Kioni.

On his re election as the one of the CAVB vice presidents, Kioni was humble saying it goes along way to show that the continent has confidence in him.

"I remain thankful. And the only reward is to ensure we work with the new leadership for the betterment and growth of the sport," said Kioni.

Kioni revealed that CAVB will hold the Board of Administration meeting soon to set out their objectives.

Other CAVB vice president are Adnan Bakbak(Libya), Rodrigues Carlos( Cape Verde), Casimir  Sawadogo( Burkina Faso), Dokony Adiker Idriss(Chad), and Fredrek Ndlovu (Zimbabwe).

The Electoral Congress, held through virtual conference due to travel restrictions occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, lasted a record 18 hours. 

It started on Sunday 11am EAT with the various Head of Commissions and Zonal presidents presenting their reports. 

The actual voting process started at 6.30pm EAT and the first session for the presidential election lasted eight hours as delegates from national federations were taken through the online voting exercise by experts from FIVB led by Fabio Azevedo.  

The second session during which elections for the posts of Vice Presidents, FIVB Board of Administration, Gender Minority and Zonal Presidents were held started on Monday 3am and lasted two hours as Team Bouchra swept all positions.