Fact Checking the Arab Media

The Lebanese parliamentary elections on May 15, in which expatriates from 58 countries around the world voted early on May 6 and 8, earned a wide media attention because of the registration of 225,000 expats who constitute an electoral bloc that can influence the results of elections. The “expat vote” this time was seen as especially important since the polls were being staged after a comprehensive financial and economic collapse in Lebanon, and following the destructive Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020. As a result, the eyes of the Lebanese and the media turned towards the details of these elections and the extent of their integrity in order to detect any falsification or violation that might occur.

On May 10, 2022, the website of Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya carried a report based on social media postings which it headlined: “Lebanon: A ridiculous picture of a ballot box among the travelers’ luggage at the Portland Airport in America.” The report said that a “picture circulated on social media sites on Tuesday May 10 and generated anger and mockery among the Lebanese activists, showing a ballot box among the travelers’ luggage at Portland Airport in the American State of Oregon.”

According to the electoral law of 2017, the ballot boxes from abroad that contain votes which have been cast are to be transferred to Lebanon through DHL after being closing and sealing. They are then placed at the Central Bank and counted on Sunday May 15 in parallel to the launching of the official count in Lebanon.

The report carried by Radio Monte Carlo website continued: “Some activists believed that the box may have landed in the State of Oregon because it hosts a city called Lebanon,” adding: “Activists on social media mocked this error, criticizing the bad organization by the Lebanese authorities.”

The report then concluded: “It is worth mentioning that the relevant authorities in Lebanon have yet to issue a comment, confirming or denying the incident.” Various other Lebanese news sites also relayed the social media criticism, including the widely read MTV website, which carried it under the headline: “In a picture: A ballot box among the travelers’ luggage.”

On the same day, however, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants did issue a statement clarifying the circumstances of the presence of that box at Portland Airport. The ministry said that the report circulated by some social media and news sites are “based on a picture posted three days ago, on May 7, 2022, before the beginning of the polling in the United States. It is of a Lebanese diplomatic baggage placed on the carousel of ordinary luggage at the American Oregon Airport, which apparently contained a [ballot] box. This raised legitimate questions among those who saw the image, surrounding the actual presence of a ballot box of such high importance and containing the voters’ votes in this unsound situation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants would like to clarify with undeniable evidence that the luggage contained an empty plastic box that did not contain any envelopes for the voters, seeing as how the Ministry [in Lebanon] sent the empty boxes for the polling centers under the authority of the General Consulate in Los Angeles through DHL, which received them and distributed them empty to the polling centers in the relevant cities, including the City of Oregon. It was carried by the designated director of the center Mr. Michel Assaf, who took the plane from Los Angeles to Oregon Airport on May 7 (i.e. on the same day that the picture was first posted on social media), and he reclaimed it as any other luggage in accordance with the interstate air transportation regulations in the United States, especially since it did not contain any sensitive documents or contents that required it to be reclaimed in the internal air freight area (check the picture of his boarding ticket and freight card with the identical dates).”

The Foreign Ministry’s statement added: “When the polling ended on May 8, 2022, i.e. one day after the picture was posted, the box containing a GPS device was tightly closed and wrapped in accordance with the approved standards, and was shipped to Beirut via DHL, respecting the safety measures applied with all the boxes that contained the voters’ ballots, so that they are delivered without any traveler or any person having access to them.

Fact Check Assessment: False

The report carried by Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya regarding a Lebanese ballot box moving around Portland Airport is true in the sense that there was an empty ballot box on the luggage carousel on May 7, as per the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants. It was accompanied by Michel Assaf, as his boarding pass shows, since he was the official in charge of transporting the box one day before the elections were then opened in the United States. However, the speculation on social media which Monte Carlo and other Lebanese media amplified - that the box was sent to Oregon mistakenly because there is a city named Lebanon there - is false. While there is such a city, the vote was actually held in the capital of the US state only i.e. Portland.