VZCZCXRO6825
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHOU #0504/01 1631652
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 111652Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY OUAGADOUGOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3793
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OUAGADOUGOU 000504 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR AF/W EMILY PLUMB 
 
E.O. 12958: 06/11/2023 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM SOCI UV
SUBJECT: Burkina Faso: Special Municipal Elections in Four Rural 
Communes: Run Smoothly on the Surface, But Ruling Party Does Not Play 
Fair Underneath 
 
 
Classified by Amb. JJackson, reasons 1.5 (b,d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary and Comment: While Embassy observers witnessed the 
smooth operations of special elections held June 1 for municipal 
councils in four rural communes, the real story behind the elections 
was disappointing.  In each commune, faithful from the ruling 
Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) Party -- possibly with the 
Party's backing at the national level -- had disrupted the operations 
of councils whose mayors were from opposition parties, thereby 
leading to their forced dissolution. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Embassy believes that the circumstances surrounding theseelections only underline the continued need for ES funding to aid 
weak opposition parties to better compete in Burkina Faso's 2010, 
2011, and 2012 presidential, legislative, and municipal elections. 
End Summary and Comment. 
 
Four Embassy Teams Observe Special By-Elections 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶3. (U) Consistent with its top Mission Strategic Plan goal of 
promoting democratic development and human rights, AmEmbassy 
Ouagadougou teams observed special elections in four rural communes 
on June 1 -- the only international observers to do so.  Each of our 
teams visited about 8-10 polling stations, all at least two hours 
from Ouagadougou and usually several minutes from each other.   Paved 
road became graded gravel, then ungraded gravel, and finally what in 
many cases were only donkey trails leading to remote villages. 
 
¶4. (U) Despite their remoteness, the elections at each polling 
station were carried out normally, with the polls opening on time, 
adequate election materials and voting booths present, four electoral 
officials at each polling place (typically teachers from other rural 
villages), two security officials (a mix of national police and 
gendarmerie), and observers from competing parties present at every 
polling station except two, where only the ruling party had 
observers.  Our teams ran into or heard of visits from other 
observers from the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), 
the State Council, and the Constitutional Council.  News reports 
indicate that representatives of the human rights NGO "Mouvement 
Burkinabe des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples" also visited polling 
stations in the rural commune of Nassere (Bam Province). 
 
Rural Municipal Councils: 
Blocked by Ruling Party Faithful 
-------------------------------- 
¶5. (U) On the surface, everything was fine on voting day, but in fact 
all was not well.  These elections were being reheld because the 
Councils in these four rural communes, set up for the first time 
after the last municipal elections in April 2006, had been racked 
with dissension.  (Note: Prior to the 2006 elections, only urban 
communes had municipal councils.  End note. )  According to Burkina 
Faso's electoral law, the central government's Council of Ministers 
can dissolve municipal councils by decree -- as it did for these four 
communes in February 2008 -- if the Ministry of Territorial 
Administration and Decentralization determines that the Councils have 
become deadlocked or dysfunctional. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Not by coincidence, in all four of the communes, non-CDP 
mayors had been elected by their fellow Municipal Council members. 
(The electorate chooses municipal councilors, who in turn, elect the 
mayor.)   In each of the four communes, observers told us, the CDP 
had actually won the majority of seats of the municipal councils, but 
after the elections, there had been defections by CDP councilors who 
chose non-CDP colleagues to be mayor. 
 
¶7. (C) In the Commune of Yonde (Koulpelogo Province), for example, 
the mayor chosen after the 2006 elections was from the CDP, but after 
he died, a councilor from the Party for Democracy and Socialism (PDS) 
was chosen by the majority CDP council to be the next mayor. 
According to PDS party representatives interviewed by DCM, many CDP 
councilors had defected to the PDS mayoral candidate because that 
individual was the best qualified.  Since taking office, the mayor 
had done a fine job of bringing money to the commune, they claimed. 
 
¶8. (C) CDP election observers, by contrast, told us that the PDS 
mayor had bribed certain CDP councilors to win their support, and was 
failing to carry out his basic responsibilities.  It became apparent 
after visiting several polling stations that the CDP observers had 
met in advance of election day and been coached.  When DCM pressed 
them for why the by-election was being held, every single observer 
recounted the same, narrow story: "because the mayor refused to issue 
birth certificates to CDP supporters."   (According to preliminary 
results announced June 4 by CENI, the division of seats between the 
CDP (26) and PDS (18) was unchanged by the election.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) A similar situation had also developed in the rural commune 
of Gounghin (Kourittenga Province), where 45 CDP councilors had been 
elected in 2006, versus 39 from the Party for Democracy and 
Progress/Socialist Party (PDP/PS) and three for the Union for the 
 
OUAGADOUGO 00000504  002 OF 002 
 
 
Republic (UPR), according to the June 3 edition of the private daily 
"Le Pays."  When the councilors (including at least three CDP 
defectors) subsequently voted in a PDP/PS mayor by a margin of 45 to 
42, disgruntled CDP loyalist councilors worked to block its 
functioning.  The PDP/PS mayor, Kayaba Sandwidi - interviewed by "Le 
Pays" - explained that CDP militants would disrupt meetings each time 
he attempted to organize a session of the municipal council. 
Eventually, Sandwidi had to throw in the towel and report to MTAD 
that his Council was not working -- which led the Council of 
Ministers to vote its dissolution in February.  (CENI's preliminary 
results on June 4 gave the CDP 46 seats, versus 41 for the PDP/PS, 
i.e. a net gain of one seat for the CDP.) 
 
¶10. (U) An extreme case of a majority CDP municipal council occurred 
in Nassere, where an ADF/RDA mayor had been elected by 28 CDP 
councilors and four from the Alliance for Democracy/Rally for 
Democratic Africa Party (ADF/RDA).  (After the June 1 by-election, 
the CDP picked up two seats for a total of 30, while the ADF/RDA fell 
to two). 
 
By-elections Symptomatic of Burkina's Weak Democracy 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶11. (C) Comment: The results of these by-elections in four rural 
communes may not seem of great significance in and of themselves, but 
they are symptomatic of weaknesses in Burkina Faso's democracy.  As 
described in our annual human rights report, observers considered the 
2005 Presidential elections "to be generally free ... but not 
entirely fair due to the ruling party's control of official 
resources."   In the case of these four communes, it appears that CPD 
faithful disrupted the normal operations of the municipal councils 
led by legally elected non-CDP mayors, and did so until the 
CDP-controlled government at the national level was able to invoke 
the electoral law to assure their dissolution. 
 
¶12. (C) Whether the CDP acquiesced, in or even orchestrated, this 
interference by party faithful is subject to debate.  It is clear, 
however, that neither the Government of Burkina Faso nor the CDP at 
the national level made any substantive effort to intervene at the 
local level during the almost two-year 2006-2008 period to mediate 
disputes at these councils and ensure that the public, i.e. CDP 
faithful, did not disrupt public meetings of elected bodies.  End 
Comment. 
 
Jackson