Nigerian elections 2023: False claims and viral videos debunked
False claims about Nigeria’s electoral commission sparked concern as voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
Videos containing old and misleading footage filmed in previous polls were also circulating.
While Nigerians await the official election results we have looked into some of these claims.
Social media in Nigeria, especially Twitter, has played a huge role in the dissemination of credible election-related news but at the same time, it has been a major source of disinformation and misinformation.
One disinformation trend we monitored was the sharing of videos purporting to show ballot-stuffing during the elections.
In Nigeria, people vote by putting their thumbprint beside the logo of the party of their choice.
Using reverse-image search tools, the BBC traced some of the videos of people thumb-printing ballots to elections in 2021 and 2019.
They are cooking results in the North what a joke of an election @inecnigeria @MBuhari you promised us a free and fair election what the hell is this #shareINECresult #TakeBackNigeria we want all these states nullified this is rigging shame on you #NigeriaDecides2023 pic.twitter.com/znt78NFcJV
— Keisha
(@Keisha_Lakish) February 26, 2023
Another viral clip showed people being coached on the best way to print their thumb on ballot papers while voting for a particular party.
Both sets of videos had strong regional and religious undertones and were widely shared on WhatsApp groups and Twitter.
A popular politician in Nigeria was one of the people who shared the video of people being coached on how to thumb print.
How the votes went in some South Eastern units. pic.twitter.com/IR6K7qd0nM
— Adamu Garba II (@adamugarba) February 25, 2023
The video appears to be voter sensitisation projects carried out by the opposition Labour Party in parts of Nigeria. The BBC has contacted the party for comment but they are yet to respond. The BBC could not establish where the videos were recorded.
But we know that the ballots shown in at least one of these viral videos were not real.
They are clearly marked “specimen” and bear little resemblance to the standard electoral commission ballot papers, seen below on the left.
Source: Ghana News
