VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDK #2287/01 3251632
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211632Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9639
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 002287 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM SG
SUBJECT: SENEGALESE PRESIDENT WADE RESTRUCTURES HIS PARTY 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: On November 16, Senegalese President Adoulaye 
Wade chaired a meeting of the Directorate of the ruling Democratic 
Party of Senegal (PDS) where Macky Sall, president of the National 
Assembly, was removed as number two of the PDS (Wade is the party 
leader).  The meeting also resolved to introduce a constitutional 
amendment to reduce the term of office of a National Assembly 
president from five years to one.  End summary 
 
You Made a Mistake and Now You Pay! 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Prior to convening the meeting, which Sall did not attend, 
President Wade told him that "he had made the mistake" of asking 
Wade's son Karim to testify before the National Assembly.  Karim 
Wade heads National Agency for the Organization of the Islamic 
Conference (ANOCI) a quasi-governmental body attached to the 
presidency that is responsible for implementing major infrastructure 
projects in Dakar in the lead up to the March 2007 Organization of 
Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit.  ANOCI has been plagued by 
accusations of mismanagement and corruption and many political 
observers speculated that Sall wanted to embarrass Karim Wade by 
compelling him to testify before the National Assembly.  Reportedly, 
President Wade told Sall that "in politics you pay for your mistakes 
in cash" just before he stripped him of party title.  Sall was 
demoted from number two in the PDS to one of seventeen PDS national 
secretaries.  He was given a totally irrelevant portfolio that not 
 
SIPDIS 
only puts him "in charge" of relations with the elders of the party 
but which publicly implies that he, as are the elders he is to 
liaise with, is politically finished in the PDS.  Sall's demotion, 
after that of former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, clearly underlines 
Wade's determination to organize his succession without any 
competition from within his party. 
 
NO MECHANISM FOR SUCCESSION 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) As the number two in the PDS and the architect of both 
Wade's presidential election victory and the PDS's legislative 
victory, Sall became a legitimate pretender to the presidency.  The 
PDS's problem, however, is that it is not a traditional party based 
on a political ideology.  Instead, it is a quasi-cult movement 
centered around one man without any real functioning democratic 
mechanisms.  Sall was chosen by Wade under the assumption that he 
did not have presidential ambitions and would not be an obstacle to 
Wade's desire to determine his successor, for which many speculate 
he is grooming his son Karim.  Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye, director of the 
daily newspaper Temoin who acted as an intermediary between the 
ades and Sall, told Poloff that Wade was prepared t "forgive" 
Macky but Karim opposed such a move bcause he sees the latter as a 
serious obstacle t Karim's eventual political control of a 
renovatd PDS. 
 
I CANNO STOP THEM 
------------------ 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Prior the meeting of the PDS Directorat, President Wade 
also is said to have told Sall, "I am not the instigator of your 
political demotion but I cannot stop them."  In fact, it is well 
known that Wade orchestrated the move by spurring regional PDS 
branches to unanimously request the elimination of the position of 
number two of the PDS.  Regional PDS leaders also fiercely attacked 
Sall for his lack of loyalty in undermining the work of the 
president's son. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) However, removing Sall from his position at the National 
Assembly is more complicated.  According to the current 
constitution, the position of National Assembly president has a 
five-year term of office.  However President Wade, wily as ever, 
instructed his nephew Doudou Wade, who heads the PDS's parliamentary 
group, to initiate a petition calling for the resignation of Sall as 
president of the National Assembly.  Meanwhile, the PDS Directorate 
has set into motion a plan to remove Sall if he refuses to resign. 
The PDS will initiate a constitutional amendment to reduce the term 
of the president of the National Assembly to one year, which would 
allow the PDS to get rid of Sall in 2008.  Such a tactic was first 
used by the Socialists in the 90s.  Thus, while Sall is still 
resisting, his support within PDS is not strong enough to save him. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The PDS Directorate chose seventeen national secretaries 
who will be Wade's deputies in running the party and there is no 
hierarchy among them.  Clearly, Wade is seeking to prevent potential 
successors from using a proximity to him to build bases for their 
own presidential ambitions. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Wade is also promoting the hawks within the PDS.  In the 
same November 16 meeting, Babacar Gaye was appointed spokesperson of 
the party, in addition to his current job as Wade's chief of staff. 
Abdoulaye Faye, a loyal companion and a strong supporter of party 
discipline, remains in charge of conflict resolution within the 
party with the rank of minister of state.  Finally, the hard-line 
Minister of Justice Cheikh Tidiane Sy has been appointed as the PDS 
national secretary in charge of unions.  In the current context of 
growing social tensions between the GOS and unions, this is a signal 
that Wade may be adopting a tougher line.  With a weak opposition, 
Wade's tinkering with institutions has, so far, been risk-free. 
What is certain is that more internal fights at the summit of the 
state and a lack of democratic mechanisms within the PDS will not be 
conducive to the peace and stability that the country has enjoyed in 
the past seven years. 
SMITH