The defeated Tempane MP, Joseph Kpemka, says bad faith tactics from his opponents led to his defeat in the parliamentary polls.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, he felt the voters in his constituency “fell for the propaganda.”
Mr. Kpemka said is was despite him lobbying for development and employment projects for them, alongside the One-Village-One-Dam project.
“When you go to the employment sector, I can tell without a shred of doubt that I did a lot for the youth in the area.”
“The verdict was a unanimous [victory for me] until three days to the election when propaganda of a venal nature, well-choreographed and churned out and calculated in a manner that it will be taken out there and I will not have an opportunity to rebut,” he complained.
As an example, he said there were claims that the Electoral Commission was favouring him by manipulating polling stations ahead of the polls.
These things distracted from the development discourse, Mr. Kpemka said.
“You have a situation where people do not talk about the development you have initiated. They don’t criticise that… somebody goes to talk about chieftaincy matters and says a certain chief in this area is being projected over other chiefs and it because that other chief is related to me or related to NPP,” he added.
On a lighter note, the deputy Attorney General described his defeat as an “electric shock.”
According to him, it didn’t take long for him to realise the polls would go badly for him.
“I got to know I was not going to win when I heard results from two polling stations out of 99 and I conceded defeat.”
“My projection was that I was going to win those polling stations by 80 percent and when they came in, I won them by just 50-something percent,” he recalled.
Mr. Kpemka lost to National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate, Lydia Akanvariba Lamisi.
He polled 16,462 votes against 20,939 votes garnered by Ms. Lamisi.
