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  • 2022-11-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Satirical posts mislead in Australia after claiming 'WEF will count state election votes' (en)
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  • Multiple social media posts have shared a claim from a satirical account that the World Economic Forum (WEF) will oversee and count the votes in an upcoming election in the Australian state of Victoria. Comments from some social media users indicated they believed the claim was genuine. In fact, both the Victorian Electoral Commission and the WEF have separately said it is false. The WEF have a hand in the Victorian Election coming up, apparently they are providing the scrutineers, yet I can't but feel that they have more involvement than we know, reads the caption in a Facebook post published on October 31, 2022. The post features a screenshot of a tweet that claims the WEF will oversee the state election in Victoria set to be held on November 26, 2022 . The screenshotted tweet reads: @electionsvic (Victorian Electoral Commission) have announced a historic partnership with @wef to oversee and count the votes in the 2022 Victorian State Election, with many other Australian states reportedly expressing interest in their services for future elections. A screenshot of the Facebook post as of November 3, 2022. The state election will decide whether current Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews -- whose second term has been dominated by coronavirus lockdowns -- will serve a third term in government. Other instances of the claim were shared on Facebook here and here . While some users recognised the claim was posted as satire, others appeared to believe it was real. How is this even possible, one user said. So we can expect corruption again! another wrote. However, the claim is false. A WEF spokesperson told AFP: I can confirm that the World Economic Forum is not overseeing and counting any votes (in the Victorian state election). 'Completely false' A search of the tweet in the misleading posts found it was originally posted here on a satirical account called EZFKA. The account describes itself as Fake News and says it is located in the Great Southern Satire Province. In response to the misleading posts, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) tweeted on November 2 that it was not partnering with the WEF for the election. We are aware of a post circulating online that suggests we have partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to oversee the counting of votes, the tweet reads. This is completely false. We have not partnered with the WEF or any other organisation to count votes for the State election. We are aware of a post circulating online that suggests we have partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to oversee the counting of votes. This is completely false. We have not partnered with the WEF or any other organisation to count votes for the State election. 1/2 — VEC (@electionsvic) November 2, 2022 The VEC also said in a reply to the original tweet that votes at the election are counted by election staff and supervised by scrutineers appointed by candidates. AFP has debunked other election-related misinformation in Australia, such as claims that pencil marks can be erased from ballots and that Australian political parties planned to introduce widespread mandatory Covid-19 vaccination . (en)
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