Sierra Leone’s government has denied using blockchain technology for the presidential elections held on March 7th. Therefore, the news about the world’s first blockchain-based election proved to be fake.

On March 8th, Swiss-based startup Agora said that its team used blockchain-based voting system to provide transparency in the elections. Moreover, the startup stated that it had gotten results before the official count. However, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) have refuted this claim.

According to its statement, NEC used in-house database developed for the previous presidential elections in 2012. Since that time the database has been updated, but it still has nothing to do with decentralization.

In fact, Agora conducted exit polls in only two districts. It is assumed that Agora had announced extensive use of blockchain in electoral process for self-promotional reasons. The startup is currently preparing for sale of tokens to attract investment.