Tempane electorates fell for propaganda - Defeated Kpemka 'cries'

Member of Parliament for the Tempane constituency who failed to retain his seat in the just-ended parliamentary elections has said his constituents chose propaganda over development.

According to Joseph Kpemka who also doubles as the Deputy Attorney General, his people were victims of well-calculated political gimmicks initiated by his opponents to court distaste for him.

He told Citi News that, though he was confident about winning the polls, some issues about chieftaincy, which arose few days to the polls are partly to blame for his loss.

“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.

“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,” he explained.

Mr Kpemka is one of the 32 incumbent NPP MPs who have lost their seats in the polls. He went against the NDC’s Lydia Akanvariba Lamisi who beat him with 20,939 votes as against the 16,462 he managed to polls.

Giving further reasons for his defeat, he lamented that; “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.”

Adding that “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.”

Despite Mr Kpemka’s sour defeat, he has insisted that once his government is in power, he will continue to support his people.