The eagerly anticipated Nigerian 2023 presidential and national assembly elections, which were scheduled for Saturday, February 25, have since taken place.
According to reports, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials arrived late to several polling units, and this caused the voting process to start very slowly around the nation. As a result, some of the impacted polling units had to conduct the voting process again. This is to prevent the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
Nigerians have continued to upload election results from their respective polling units on social media platforms, which has given way for bad actors in the ecosystem to circulate fake election results and mislead the public.
Numerous election results, some of which are fabricated, have been floating around while the Commission’s collation centres are still counting the votes.
The CDD Election War Room earlier reported how Dele Momodu, a spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council posted a fake election result on Instagram, claiming that Datti Ahmed, the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate won only five votes for his party.
We also reported a doctored TikTok video claiming that INEC has declared Peter Obi the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
In addition, supporters of political parties have shared viral online images, that depict unconfirmed election results. An example is provided below;
The problem of fake election results has been consistent in every electoral cycle in Nigeria. This is because political actors and their ardent supporters utilize it to spread false narratives that serve their own personal agendas.
In Nigeria, the general election results are compiled at four different levels:
- The first step is to compile results from polling units at the ward level after the voting process has been completed.
- The second step is to compile results from wards at the local government level.
- The third step is to compile results from local governments at the state level.
- The final step is to compile the results from the states and the FCT on a national level.
This explains why the election commission takes some time to announce the official outcome.
How to spot fake results.
- Check the profile of the person sharing. This is to know about their political bias and the reason why they are sharing such results at that particular time.
- It is essential to look out for the source of the information being shared. This will go a long way to help verify the veracity of such results.
- Results that come from the Commission are regarded as credible because it is the umpire of the electoral system in the country and is by law the only institution that can declare the official results from the polls.
- There are also credible media organizations and reliable Civil Society Organisation (CSO) that deploy correspondents to cover the electoral process across the country. They report the outcome of the polls as they unfold from their observations on the field.
When you see election results online, especially when there hasn’t been an official statement from INEC, it is crucial to cross-check with trustworthy media outlets and CSOs reporting the election. This will save you from falling victim to fake election results.