False! More Nimbaians did not vote in the 2023 presidential run-off election than in the first round

Claim: Nimba County district #7 lawmakers say more Nimbaians voted in the 2023 presidential run-off election than they did in the general presidential election.

Verdict: False! About 198,900 Nimbaians voted in the runoff election, while 248,352 voted in the presidential election. 

Full Text

Nimba County district #7 lawmaker says the votes of the people of Nimba County have not been adequately accounted for in past elections in Liberia.

Representative Musa Bility cited the 2023 presidential elections as one of his examples, stating that they were fraudulent and that Nimbaians’ decisions were not adequately represented.

According to the political leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC), many candidates participated in the first round of the presidential election; however, the number of votes from Nimba was not representative of the number who actually turned out to vote.  

Bility asserted that only two candidates emerged to contest the runoff election, but more Nimbaian turned out to vote than did in the presidential election. 

He can be heard from 1:05:00 to 1:07:59 of the show. To promote truth in Liberia’s information ecosystem, DUBAWA verified the lawmaker’s assertion.

Verification

DUBAWA checked the official website of the National Elections Commission to verify Representative Musa Bility’s assertion.

In the October 2023 presidential election, a total of 307,254 Nimbaians registered to vote. Of those numbers, 248,352 cast their votes.

Screenshot of the final results. 

In the presidential run-off election, 198,900 Nimbaians voted.

Screenshot of the results.

So, it is the other way round. More Nimbaians voted in the 2023 presidential election than in the runoff.

Conclusion

Representative Musa Bility’s assertion that more Nimbaians voted in the 2023 presidential runoff election than in the presidential election is false.