On October 15, Boimah Lartey Kiadii, who identified himself as an observer of independent candidate Mohammed Dosii in the District #2, Grand Cape Mounty County Legislative election, claims in a Facebook post that voting precinct# 12035 in the county is quarantined due to alteration of votes for both representative and senatorial candidates.
The Claim
The exact text of his post reads: “We noticed, reported, and quarantined the entire Weajue Voting Precinct 12035 yesterday (October 14) due to alteration of the votes for both representative and senatorial candidates. Some people’s votes were reduced, and some were added…”.
Rating Justification
To fact check this claim, we first contacted Mr. Kiadii via Facebook messenger to ascertain more about his allegation.
He replied: “I noticed it when we were tallying. The reading officer can open the Tee 3 in the presence of all the observers then read the numbers. It was from there we noticed that the numbers were altered. The real ones that were posted at the center are different from the ones that were in the Tee 3”.
We then contacted Mr. Joseph M. Kiazol, Sr., NEC Magistrate for Grand Cape Mount County, but could not reach him via phone.
So, we contacted the Electoral Supervisor, Mr. Philip Zodua who said that the tally sheets or record of the counts were perfect and was posted after polling closed, but they later got to know that the copy in the TEE 3 was different from the one that was posted on the wall/bulletin.
Mr. Zodua confirmed that the tallying center has been quarantine due to the situation.
We again contacted the Grand Cape Mount County Election Magistrate. This time, he answered and claimed that “No Votes were altered”.
Mr. Kiazolu said: “There are times when we have mistake in the calculations, and when there is mistake in the calculation the children (observers) consider it as votes being altered.”
To further verify this, we contacted the Director of Communications of NEC, Mr. Henry Flomo who confirmed that an “incident of malpractice” was carried out by four staff and they “have been turned over to the Justice Ministry”. However, Mr. Flomo said tallying of results has resume.
Conclusion
We therefore conclude that, this claim made by Observer Boimah Lartey Kiadii that the Weajue-Voting precinct 12035 in Grand Cape Mount County has been reported and quarantined due to alteration of votes for both representative and senatorial candidates, is mostly correct. However, the tally center has resume the tabulation of votes.
Local Voices Liberia, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, has implemented the iVerify Liberia system with the objective of strengthening capacities to address threats to information integrity, especially in view of the upcoming 2023 elections, to ensure all Liberian citizens have access to credible, reliable and verified information, everywhere and at all times.
This initiative is funded by Irish Aid, Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia, European Union Delegation in Liberia and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. The donors have no say in the production of this fact check report.
