After recent reports that floated in the media about Sierra Leone using blockchain technology for its elections, the country’s National Electoral Commission has said that it has not used blockchain technology in any way.

“The NEC [National Electoral Commission] has not used and is not using blockchain technology in any part of the electoral process,” said NEC head Mohamed Conteh (as quoted by TechCrunch).

Previous reports suggested that the technology used in the election was developed by blockchain startup Agora. In its press release dated March 8, Agora had said:

“Swiss-based Agora, officially accredited as international observer by the National Electoral Commission, recorded Sierra Leone West Districts results on its custom-built blockchain, ensuring that election data was third-party verifiable and protected against any possibility of tampering. Election results are publicly available on Agora’s website, which has allowed citizens to monitor their election within only a few hours of polls closing.”

Agora has now issued an official statement on the controversy stating that its technology was “partially deployed”.

“Our digital voting platform was partially deployed during the March 2018 presidential elections. Votes from the West Districts were recorded on an immutable blockchain ledger,” Agora’s website reads.

The company clarified that it was accredited as an “international observer” by the NEC and was accredited to cover 280 polling locations in the West Districts of Sierra Leone.

From what has transpired, it appears that Agora, in its capacity as international observer, recorded the electoral votes on its blockchain and tallied the results with those of the NEC.

“We would like to thank Sierra Leone and the NEC for permitting us to participate with our technology as international observers in the election,” Agora said in a statement. “We are excited to report that Agora’s results as an international observer were extremely close to the NEC’s official election count.”