Rivercess Senator’s Claim of Highest Unity Party Votes in Southeast Holds — His Total Figures Don’t
BJ
Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo
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Claim: "Rivercess is the only south Eastern County that gave the highest votes to the Unity Party."
Source: Wellington Geevon Smith, Senator, Rivercess County
Full Text: Senator Wellington Geevon Smith made the above claim during the Senate hearing of Minister of Public Works Roland Giddings.
He also separately claimed that Rivercess County gave 7,000 votes to the Unity Party in the 2023 presidential elections. The hearing clip containing the claim is available here (1:41:44).
The southeastern region of Liberia generally comprises five main counties, which are grouped together for administrative planning, development initiatives, and regional missions. Those counties are Maryland, Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, River Gee, and Rivercess.
The 2023 presidential election featured 20 candidates, but no candidate secured an absolute majority, defined as fifty percent plus one of all valid votes cast. Under Article 83(b) of the Liberian Constitution, the National Elections Commission (NEC) is mandated to conduct a run-off between the two candidates who received the most votes when no absolute majority is achieved.
The two run-off contenders were current President Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party (UP), who hailed from Lofa County, and former President George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), who is from Grand Kru County.
Verification: The Stage Media reviewed the National Elections Commission’s 2023 presidential election results for the five southeastern counties. The table below shows the votes cast for the Unity Party and the Coalition for Democratic Change in each county during the run-off: Votes accumulated in SouthEastern Counties 2023 by top two candidates
The data confirms that among the five southeastern counties, Rivercess recorded the highest percentage of votes for the Unity Party at 24.71 percent. It also recorded the highest raw vote count for the Unity Party in the region at 6,503 votes. Senator Smith’s first claim is therefore correct.
However, Senator Smith’s second claim that Rivercess gave 7,000 votes to the Unity Party is not supported by the NEC’s official results. The actual figure recorded is 6,503 votes, which is 497 votes fewer than Senator Smith stated.
Conclusion: TSM research found Rivercess County did give the highest votes to the Unity Party from the southeastern region in the 2023 run-off election, both by raw vote count (6,503) and percentage (24.71 percent). But the NEC website shows the county gave 6,503 votes and not 7,000 as claimed by senator Smith.
