Charles King, the African politician who won the most rigged election in World History

People are pursuing political offices of all kinds in the world today. While some partake in a rigorous campaign to win the election, some go the extreme lengths to the point that the election is manipulated to guarantee their victory.

There is an African politician who holds the record for winning the most rigged election in world history, although rigging still exists today. His name is Charles King, the former President of Liberia.

Charles Dunbar Burgess King, of American-Liberian and Freetown Creole descent, was a Liberian politician. Born on March 12, 1875, he died on September 4, 1961. King was a member of the True Whig Party, which from 1878 until 1980 governed Liberia.

King also served from 1904 until 1912 as Attorney General, and from 1912 as Secretary of State of Liberia. In 1919, he was elected president and served from 1920 until 1930 as Liberia’s 17th president.

When he sought re-election as president of Liberia for a third term in 1927, he fell into foreign disrepute. The general elections, held on 3 May 1927, are reputed to be the most fraudulent in the history of the world.

King won his nearest rival, Thomas J. Faulkner of the People’s Party, in an election that had only 15,000 registered Liberian voters, when he scored 243,000 votes compared to Faulkner’s 9,000.

King won the dubious accomplishment of being mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records for winning the most fraudulent election in history.

The elections were referred to as “the most rigged ever” by Francis Johnson-Morris, the modern head of the country’s National Elections Commission, and also made to the Guinness Book of Records the most fraudulent election ever recorded in history, as King won the election with 243,000 votes despite less than 15,000 registered voters.