FALSE: This image does not show voters in Akaki Kality and Gelan areas of Addis Ababa city
A Facebook image claiming to show people lining up to vote at Akaki Kality sub-city of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is FALSE.
The image was posted by Taye Dendea, a top government official, and is accompanied by text in Amharic and Afan Oromo that reads, “Akaki Kality. There is a high turn out and people are voting. The attempt and efforts that were made to disrupt the election have failed”.
The first photo in the Facebook post in question was shared by a different user with the claim that it was taken in the Gelan area of Addis Ababa.
The same image was also posted by Daniel Kibret, who was an independent candidate in Lemi Kura sub-city area, with a claim that it shows voters at Lemi Kura in Addis Ababa.
The timestamp on the three Facebook posts shows the image was first posted online by Daniel, who cast his vote at the Lemi Kura area polling station.
Responding to PesaCheck’s query, Daniel, who is also an advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, on social affairs, dismissed the claims that the photo shows voters in Gelan and Akaki Kality areas.
Daniel further noted that the photo was captured by one of the election observers at Lemi-Kura area.
“The photo was taken and originally shared by our teams, who were election observers at Lemi-Kura sub-city,” Daniel said.
PesaCheck’s research found that the image was also shared by Adebabay Media, with the caption accompanying the image stating that it shows voters in the Lemi Kura area.
A reverse image search for the second and third photos yielded no results.
Ethiopia’s sixth general election was held on 21 June, 2021. However, due to pre-election fraud, the war in Tigray, violence in some parts of the country, and logistical problems, some of the parliamentary constituencies did not participate in the Monday polls. Some prominent opposition parties also boycotted the election.
Despite the challenges, long queues of voters were witnessed at polling centres.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook photo claiming to show voters at Akaki Kality and Gelan areas and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck copy editor Eden Berhane, and chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.