VZCZCXRO9115
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0176 0460732
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 150732Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0024
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS DAKAR 000176 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM ECON SG
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM OR GERRYMANDERING? 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: On February 1, Senegal's National Assembly passed 
a law to increase the number of administrative regions from 11 to 
14, fulfilling an election promise that President Abdoulaye Wade 
made in February 2007. Described by Wade as an effort to bring 
government closer to citizens, opposition and civil society leaders 
denounced the reform as a democratic setback, an undermining of 
national cohesion and an attempt to further weaken the opposition. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
Administrative Dissection 
------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The goal of the reform is to carve out of three current 
regions -- Kolda, Kaolack and Tambacounda -- three new regions. 
Thus the areas of Sedhiou, Kaffrine and Kedougou have now become 
full-fledged administrative regions.  In Senegal's unitary state 
system, regions retain a certain prestige as they are headed by an 
appointed governor who acts as the local representative of the 
president while exercising the authority of the central government 
as the chief executive of the central government's activities in the 
area.  In providing a rationale for the law, the government 
indicated that "The regions of Kolda, Kaolack, and Tambacounda 
represent 48 per cent of the national territory but are 
characterized by administrative inefficiency, lack of social 
cohesion, and no common destiny."  Yet, beneath this rationale lies 
a political strategy that aims to boost the ruling Senegalese 
Democratic Party's (PDS) chances in the May local elections.  By 
elevating districts into regions, Wade is creating a mood of 
regional pride while adding all the glamour of having a governor as 
the highest-ranked local executive as well as the concomitant 
promotion of political elites into newly created elective positions 
such as president of Regional Councils or rural town mayors. 
 
WHY THESE THREE AREAS? 
---------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) In the Casamance region in the south, Sedhiou's leaders 
have always expressed frustrations that Ziguinchor gets all the 
attention though Sedhiou was the first capital of the region. The 
GOS's plan is to satisfy these demands and at the same time distance 
Sedhiou from the Casamance conflict by giving them the idea that 
their destiny is in their own hands.  The peoples of Kedougou, 
ethnic minorities mainly, will see this reform as an opportunity to 
unburden themselves of the image of a remote area to which 
subversive civil servants are banished. It is also another positive 
signal for the area after Senegalese First Lady Viviane Wade's 
initiative to build a modern hospital in the remote area of 
Ninefesha, inhabited by the Bedhik tribes who are hardly known by 
northern Senegalese.  By elevating Kedougou into a region Wade is 
also likely to end the political career of his charismatic opponent, 
Amath Dansokho, who is the Mayor of the town of Kedougou.  As for 
Kaffrine, it is a significant electoral basin controlled by the 
opposition.  The Alliance of the Forces of Progress's(AFP) Ms. Mata 
Sy Diallo chairs the Regional Council of Kaolack.  The reform will 
force the opposition to revisit its strategies three months before 
the elections and in all likelihood will lose any advantage they 
might have gained by managing a large region such as Kaolack. 
 
 
FEARS OF THE OPPOSITION 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) A leading member of the Socialist Party who is a specialist 
on decentralization issues told Embassy: "This reform has no 
economic, geographic, or sociological basis. It's purely political 
and dangerous for national unity; we are getting closer to creating 
ethnic regions."  He also noted that as chair of the local 
government of Yenne (thirty miles northeast of Dakar) he had heard 
that the government plans to create new rural municipalities in his 
district so that the ruling party can control the area where Dubai's 
JAFZA is to create an economic zone. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Wade's strategy of attracting the best and the brightest of 
the opposition is now being taken a step further by this chopping up 
of administrative regions to reduce the political and geographic 
areas that are under their control.  Wade's strategy also plays on 
the frustrations of people who have long felt marginalized and who 
will now be under the illusion of being a political center in their 
own right.  At the same time the PDS gains an opportunity to add new 
players to its political base.  Yet, in terms of economic 
development and consolidation of grassroots democracy, the 
multiplication of administrative and political institutions that use 
scarce resources to support themselves does not seem to be an 
advance for Senegal's democracy. 
SMITH