No substance who votes, it matters who counts the votes – this quote attributed to Joseph Stalin is present as current as 80 years ago. There is controversy in the regulation of law in almost all election. Buying votes, votes cast by dead people, an extended count, during which votes cast for 1 candidate are found... Fortunately, specified situations mostly have a marginal impact on the final result of the election, and the fact that we learn about them means that the safety strategy works. Well, where there's a power struggle, there will inevitably be abuse. What's different about dictatorships? There is no 1 playing forgeries, but the full score is distorted. This leads to comic situations erstwhile it turns out that the manager of the government received over 100% of the vote. However, even the most corrupt and fraudulent elections gotta avert the 1927 Liberian elections. The election that went into the Guinness evidence book as the most fraudulent election in history.
Liberia is the oldest republic in Africa. The country's name comes from the Latin word liber (free). At the time of its founding, the country consisted of indigenous residents and liberated slaves who returned from the United States. On July 26, 1847, the Liberians passed a constitution and declared independence. The first president was elected in 1872 by Joseph Jenkins Roberts.
Over the next 50 years, the elections continued through greater disruptions. In 1920, the 17th president of Liberia was Charles Dunbar Burgess King representing the Real Wig Party. Although his governments were marked by a series of scandals, he won a second word in 1924 without major problems. In 1927, King one more time applied for re-election. His opponent was Thomas J. Faulkner. The election was held on May 3, 1927. Only 15,000 Liberals were eligible to vote. Why so little? First of all, only Americans, or erstwhile slaves and their descendants, were entitled to vote. Secondly, in those days women inactive had no voting rights.
Charles King (wikimedia commons)After counting the votes, King's crushing triumph was announced. Faulkner won about 9,000 votes. This was a very good result, due to the fact that it meant more than half of all registered voters and, consequently, victory. Unfortunately, even that amount was not adequate to defeat King, who won as many as 243000 votes (!!!). This meant that 1680% of those entitled to vote voted in the election, with over 96% of the votes cast for the President-in-Office.
How have specified an awesome number of votes been obtained? Ducks representing different tribes and villages were brought to the capital. The Wig-paid chiefs gave their vote to King, and their vote was then multiplied by the number of tribe members.
Despite the apparent fraud, Charles King began his 3rd term. Although his opponent could not do, as the results were recognized and certified, Faulkner had no intention of giving up on his rival. The politician left for the US, where he publically accused any of the leading members of the Real Wig organization of practicing slavery. King initially ignored the scandal, as did the accusation of election forgery. It was only the League of Nations that forced him to halt his silence that set up a peculiar commission to analyse the charges. King, of course, did not intend to respect the global commission, but bowed down under US pressure. Liberia was heavy borrowed from Americans (and utilized their protection), so she could not afford to break diplomatic relations.
President King with his entourage during his 1927 visit to The Hague (wikimedia commons)The Commission found no evidence of slavery (according to the then applicable definition), but evidence was found that respective Real Wig leaders — including president King and his Vice president Allen Yancy — benefited from forced labor. As a result, the impeachment procedure began against King in 1930. To avoid this, the president and vice president resigned.
Interestingly, even the confusion with specified serious accusations did not plunge King's political career. The erstwhile president continued to hold many public functions. In 1931, he ran unsuccessfully for president. Later, he even became a typical of Liberia at the UN. The scandal besides did not destruct the Wig Party, which successfully held power in the country until the 1980s.
Source:
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-most-rigged-election-according-to-the-guinness-book-of-world-records-ffd3217f8b12
https://www.bustle.com/articles/190167-the-most-ridiculous-rigged-elections-in-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1927_Liberian_general_election
