False claims of election fraud spread in France after ‘computer error’

Deceptive claims of fraud have circulated in France after incorrect presidential election runoff outcomes have been displayed on tv.

France 2 mentioned that it had displayed incorrect provisional voting figures on the night of the election because of a “pc error”.

The broadcaster has mistakenly attributed 14.2 million votes to winner Emmanuel Macron and 14.4 million to Marine Le Pen. In response to the French Inside ministry, Le Pen ended the election with 13.3 million votes and simply 41.5% of the vote.

The confusion led some social media customers to falsely declare that the election runoff had been marred by voter fraud and that the far-right candidate “misplaced tens of millions of votes” whereas the ballots have been counting.

However France 2 has apologised and mentioned its software program had mistakenly counted some regional votes for Le Pen twice.

“A pc error led us to show incorrect figures through the France 2 election night on Sunday 24 April,” the broadcaster mentioned on Twitter.

“The software program that permits the channel to show the info from the Ministry of the Inside counted the votes in some communes twice for each candidates.”

“This error, observed instantly, was later corrected,” the broadcaster added.

Various deceptive claims of “election fraud” went viral on Twitter, gaining hundreds of likes and retweets.

It was common that Martine Le Pen had led her centre-right rival through the election, because of her recognition in rural areas of France, the place polling stations shut earlier.

However based on last outcomes printed by the French Inside Ministry, Macron received with 18.7 million votes (58.5%).

Unfounded allegations of voter fraud have beforehand circulated round elections in Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA.