diff --git a/arangod/Cluster/FollowerInfo.h b/arangod/Cluster/FollowerInfo.h
index ed9b6cde03..4ea0f4bb79 100644
--- a/arangod/Cluster/FollowerInfo.h
+++ b/arangod/Cluster/FollowerInfo.h
@@ -187,11 +187,13 @@ class FollowerInfo {
       if (_canWrite) {
         // Someone has decided we can write, fastPath!
 
-#ifdef ARANGODB_USE_MAINTAINER_MODE
+#ifdef ARANGODB_ENABLE_MAINTAINER_MODE
         // Invariant, we can only WRITE if we do not have other failover candidates
         READ_LOCKER(readLockerData, _dataLock);
         TRI_ASSERT(_followers->size() == _failoverCandidates->size());
-        TRI_ASSERT(_followers->size() > _docColl->minReplicationFactor());
+        // Our follower list only contains followers, numFollowers + leader
+        // needs to be at least minReplicationFactor.
+        TRI_ASSERT(_followers->size() + 1 >= _docColl->minReplicationFactor());
 #endif
         return _canWrite;
       }