Claim that 9 year old children are obtaining BVR cards in the South East is unproven. Local Voices Liberia iVerify team reached this conclusion after performing multiple reverse Image search of the viral photo of children hold what appears to be Biometric Voter Cards in Liberia but no results was found to to trace the photo to its source or location.
The viral photo showing three kids holding what appears to be ID Cards or BVR cards have been circulating social media. Many social media users who shared the photo claimed that the kids had obtained a BVR card thus qualifying them to vote in this year’s pending elections.
Mohammed Ali, the Director of Political Affairs in the office of Unity Party standard bearer, shared the photo and claimed that the kids were registered in Maryland County.
Mr. Ali, in a telephone conversation with Local Voices Liberia iVerify team, claimed that the photo was sent to them by Unity Party observers in the counties.
LVL Fact Checking Desk observed that the same photo was shared by several others on social but claiming that it was taken in different locations.
Another poster, Cooper Passawe who shared the same photo, also claimed that the incident occurred in Grand Kru County.
When contacted about when and where the photo was taken, Mr. Passawe said he could not disclosed which parts of Grand Kru County the image was taken.
“I’m am a politician and can’t disclose details of my information, I posted it for NEC to do the verification,” he said.
Charles Roberts, a member of the opposition Unity Party, also shared the same photo and claimed that the children were registered in Bong County.
LVL Mobile Fact Checker in Bong County contacted the Upper Bong Election Magistrate, Mr. Daniel Newland, who said the claim is “false” and “there is nothing of such happening in Bong”.
Said Mr. Newland: “It will be good if these people who are sharing this photo were to give the location, the center code and name, but my supervisors and I are going around and we have not giving out cards to kids”.
Also, LVL Mobile Fact Checker in Maryland County said he could not traced the photo to any incident in the county.
Based on our research and review of the claim, we conclude that the claim made about the photo trending on social media is unproven. There is no proof that the National Elections Commission is registering children to obtain BVR cards.
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.
