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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Elections & voting fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about elections & voting. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,415 published reviews in this topic

DUBAWAElections & voting

A claim that some countries campaign till the day of election.

Publisher’s rating: True

The claim concerned whether campaigning is permitted through election day in at least some countries. DUBAWA examined it as one of three claims attributed to INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu while he addressed controversy over election servers on July 8, 2019. The review says he contrasted Nigeria’s ballot-paper handling and emphasis on trust with practices elsewhere, and reports that he could not be reached for comment.

DUBAWAElections & voting

A claim that the 2019 election has been nullified, that will be another general election.

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a Facebook post saying a court had given President Muhammadu Buhari five days to leave office so a new presidential election could be held because INEC lacked the results. DUBAWA says it found the post on July 5, 2019, and situates it amid the legal challenge to the presidential election outcome by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar. The review reports that INEC had declared Buhari the winner after votes were collated across Nigeria’s 36 states, and that Atiku and the PDP petitioned to challenge the result. The review distinguishes the dispute over access to election materials and a claimed INEC server from the post’s assertion that there were no election results. It says the Court of Appeal had ordered INEC to let Atiku and the PDP access certified copies of election materials. It also reports that Atiku sought access to a server and that INEC denied that such a server existed. According to DUBAWA, INEC did not say that there were no presidential election results or that another election would take place. At the time described in the review, the petition remained before the Tribunal and no final judgment had been passed. The supplied excerpt does not report a court order requiring Buhari to vacate office or directing a new election. DUBAWA’s conclusion is that the post’s central assertion was false; its account does not treat the ongoing challenge to the result as a nullification of the election.

FACTLYElections & voting

A letter written by a voter to KCR demanding Kingfisher beers in their district was found in the ballot box used for local elections in Jagtial, even asked to merge their district in Karimnagar district, as the beer was available in that district.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an alleged letter from a voter to Telangana Chief Minister KCR, supposedly discovered in a ballot box during local elections in Jagtial. The letter was said to demand Kingfisher beer in the district and to ask that Jagtial be merged with Karimnagar, where the beer was available. FACTLY investigated whether a beer-related letter had actually been found in that ballot box; its account reports a direct check with the Joint Collector of Jagtial, who said that no such letter was found. The official instead said that the ballot box contained a letter requesting a road. The review also distinguishes the viral claim from an earlier, similar episode: a person had written to the District Collector the previous year about Kingfisher beer not being available locally, but FACTLY says that letter was not the one allegedly found in the ballot box. The review notes that media outlets and social-media users circulated the ballot-box story, but reports the Joint Collector’s clarification as contradicting it. It further observes that the viral letter image appeared attached to a notebook, rather than folded as the review says a letter found in a ballot box should have been. The reported official clarification is the direct evidence about what was found; the image observation is an additional point made by the review.

Pagella PoliticaElections & voting

La Lega è stato il partito più votato in tutta l’Unione europea.

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

The claim concerns Matteo Salvini’s statement that the Lega was the most-voted party across the European Union in the May 2019 European elections. The review distinguishes two ways of interpreting “most voted”: the total number of votes received and the percentage of votes in each country. It reports that Salvini made the statement on 5 June 2019 on the television programme Otto e mezzo.

FACTLYElections & voting

In West Bengal, three youth were punished for working as polling agents for BJP

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a Facebook post alleging that three youths in West Bengal were punished for working as BJP polling agents in the recent elections. FACTLY’s review says the image shared with that allegation instead showed an incident in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in 2011. According to the review, three men there were punished for looting valuables from Rohingya people—not for political work in West Bengal. The review describes its image check: it ran the post’s image through Yandex Reverse Image Search, which led it to the 2011 Bangladesh incident. It concludes that an old image from Bangladesh was being recirculated with a false West Bengal election-related caption. The supplied excerpt does not identify the Facebook user or provide further details about the original image’s publication history.

FACTLYElections & voting

జగిత్యాల జిల్లాలో కింగ్ ఫిషర్ బీర్ దొరకట్లేదని, కరీంనగర్ లో దొరుకుంతుంది కాబట్టి ఆ జిల్లాలో తమ జిల్లాని కలిపెయమంటూ ఒక వ్యక్తి కేసీఆర్ కి వినతి పత్రం రాసి బ్యాలట్ బాక్సులో వేసాడు.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE