George Galloway received 91.6% of all the postal votes cast in the Rochdale by-election.
There’s no evidence to support this. The percentage seems to have been calculated on the assumption that all the votes cast for Mr Galloway were postal votes, but this number is actually unknown.
A number of posts on Facebook claim that more than 90% of the postal votes cast in the recent Rochdale by-election went to the eventual winner, George Galloway. But there’s no evidence to support this.
One post says: “Of the 13460 postal votes cast an astonishing 12335 were for George Galloway representing a 91.6% share of the vote.” Another claims: “Of 21,810 Postal Votes issued, 13,460 were returned. Of these 13,460 postal votes, 12,335 (91.64%) voted for George Galloway.”
Other posts use different wording and statistics but make similar claims, falsely claiming Mr Galloway received more postal votes (12,445 and 12,450) than the official count says he got in total.
Mr Galloway’s by-election victory followed Labour’s withdrawal of support for their own candidate, Azhar Ali, following controversial remarks he apparently made about Jewish people while discussing the 7 October attacks on Israel. However, the figures used in the claims about the proportion of postal votes he received seem to be based on the assumption that all, or a very high proportion of, the votes Mr Galloway received were postal votes.
The election saw a total of 31,107 votes cast, according to the results page of Rochdale Borough Council. Of these, 12,335 were cast for Mr Galloway, representing the Workers Party of Britain.
The same results page shows that a total of 13,460 postal votes were received. While it is correct that the 12,335 votes received by Mr Galloway represent over 91% of the figure of 13,460 postal votes, there is nothing to suggest that Mr Galloway received only, or a very high percentage of, postal votes.
Candidate totals include all the different types of votes that can be cast. This includes in-person votes at polling stations, postal votes and votes cast by proxy.
During an election, verified in-person ballot papers are combined with verified postal votes to produce a single overall number of votes.
A spokesperson for Rochdale Borough Council confirmed that postal votes are not counted separately, meaning it is not possible to say what proportion of postal votes Mr Galloway, or any of the other candidates, received.
The voter turnout was almost 40%, with a total electorate of about 78,000. More than half the votes cast in the election were either in person or by proxy. For Mr Galloway to have received 12,335 postal votes, it would obviously mean that none of the people turning up at the polls cast their votes in his favour, which seems unlikely.
False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.
Image courtesy of Camellia Yang
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because there’s no evidence that all, or a very high proportion of, the votes cast for Mr Galloway were postal votes.
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