VZCZCXRO9675
OO RUEHGR
DE RUEHGR #0092/01 1851912
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 031912Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY GRENADA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0442
INFO RUEHWN/AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN 0476
RUEHGR/AMEMBASSY GRENADA 0521

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GRENADA 000092 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR JONATHAN MITCHELL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV GJ
SUBJECT: GRENADA ELECTIONS IN THE SEASON OF CARNIVAL 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Grenadians describe the 2008 election cycle as 
carnival-like (Grenada's 2008 Carnival will take place August 11 
- 12) with political parties waving party colors and rushing 
from point to point around the tri-island state staging 
entertainment-fueled rallies.  Several candidates have allegedly 
received death threats, and many of post's interlocutors say 
that this is the ugliest campaign season they have experienced 
in recent memory, with the race focusing less on issues than 
personal animosities.  Election-related destruction of property 
and verbal and physical attacks on opponents appear to be 
increasing, despite party promises to run clean campaigns. 
Rumors abound that even if the NDC wins a majority, the current 
political leader will be pushed aside to make way for a more 
radical leadership to grab power.  Two candidates face criminal 
charges, one for fraud and one for assault, but neither has 
pulled out of the race.  The U.S. has contributed funding and 
personnel to the Organization of American States' (OAS) election 
observer mission to be led by Deputy Secretary General Ramdin, 
July 3 - 9.  END SUMMARY 
 
Campaign in Full Swing 
 
¶2. (SBU) As the campaign enters its final week, the main 
opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is 
hoping that the momentum for change that marked recent elections 
elsewhere in the region will help sweep them into power in 
Grenada.  Hence, one of their three main slogans is "NDC, the 
heartbeat of change".  The NDC is running on a platform 
promising to reduce the cost of living, provide free college 
education for all who qualify, provide jobs and housing for all, 
remove the hurricane reconstruction levy, and stimulate 
agriculture.  The party released its manifesto during the last 
week in June -- a glossy, multi-page production that the New 
National Party (NNP) promptly ridiculed at great length as 
copied verbatim from the Barbados Democratic Labour Party's 
(DLP) manifesto with a few word and picture changes.  As the DLP 
leadership has been advising the NDC leadership, as well as 
providing monetary support, this is not surprising.  The NDC is 
defending itself against the plagiarism charge in this week's 
press. 
 
¶3. (U) The governing New National Party (NNP) is running on the 
theme "let the progress continue".  The party's platform 
enumerates its accomplishments over the last 13 years and 
promises continuing reconstruction, improvements to education 
and social services.  Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has used the 
power of incumbency to resolve issues even as the party 
campaigns.  For example, he announced at the end of June a deal 
with the two unions representing the majority of the public 
service workers to establish a pension plan.  The People's 
Revolutionary Government had ended the public service workers 
pensions in 1979 when it seized power, and this has been a major 
bone of contention for all governments since then. 
 
¶4. (U) The United Labour Platform (ULP), which brings together 
the Grenada United Labour Party and the People's Liberation 
Movement, has far less money than its two major rivals and is 
therefore less of a presence in the election campaign.  The ULP 
claims to have the best chance of improving labor conditions of 
all the parties.  The party is also interested in offshore oil 
and gas development, and has pledged to resolve once and for all 
Grenada's maritime boundary disputes with Venezuela and other 
Caribbean islands. 
 
Voting Days - July 4 and 8 
 
¶5. (U) In order to field a full contingent of police to maintain 
order on Election Day, Grenada's Parliament in May amended the 
country's election law to allow a separate voting day for the 
approximately 900 members of the Royal Grenada Police Force 
(RGPF).  The police officers are not allowed to opt to vote on 
the general election day.  Thus, RGPF officers will vote on July 
4 while the rest of the population goes to the polls July 8. 
The head of the Parliamentary Elections Office has assured the 
public that the police list will be available on July 3 and the 
general list on July 5.  NDC and non-governmental organizations 
complain that this is not good enough, since the lists were 
promised several weeks ago. 
 
¶6. (SBU) OAS Deputy Secretary General Albert Ramdin is scheduled 
to arrive in Grenada on July 3 to lead the OAS Election Observer 
Mission (EOM).  USOAS provided USD 55,000 to support the EOM. 
Five officials from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown will 
participate.  The U.S. participation brings the number of 
observers to approximately 27, close to the OAS goal of 30.  NDC 
announced publicly before they had met Ramdin in mid-June that 
they did not believe he could be unbiased, and they have not 
changed their stance.  It would appear that they are positioning 
the party to cry foul if they lose the election. 
 
 
GRENADA 00000092  002 OF 003 
 
 
Rumor, Threats, and Videotape 
 
¶7. (SBU) Grenadians, as one RGPF officer recently admitted, 
enjoy creating "malicious mischief".  Rumor and innuendo have 
run rampart.  Alleged misdeeds of the PM and others in the 
ruling New National Party (NNP) are being recycled, including 
accusations that Mitchell took US$500,000 from German 
businessman Eric Resteiner and that Deputy Prime Minister 
Gregory Bowen demanded a bribe from a U.S. businessman in order 
to issue a license to drill for oil and gas.  The allegations 
are not new but they have been reinvigorated by the campaign. 
Reports circulated during the week of June 23 that the so-called 
"briefcase videotape", allegedly showing Mitchell receiving 
money from Resteiner, had finally surfaced.  None of post's 
interlocutors could actually say they had seen it.  The Grenada 
Today, an anti-NNP weekly, frustrated that the original tape was 
not made public (it remains in the hands of Resteiner and/or his 
attorney as far as we know) supposedly put together their own 
version in 2005, which was almost immediately exposed as a fake, 
and it is possible that the fake has resurfaced.  Mitchell and 
his wife were named last year in a civil suit in the United 
States attempting to recover US$1 million from a range of 
Grenadians and others alleged to have benefited from the fraud. 
 
¶8. (SBU) On July 1, local rumor-mongerers struck again, this 
time about Chinese- made tee-shirts.  The People's Republic of 
China (PRC) is allegedly providing most of the NDC's promotional 
items, including yellow tee shirts with various party slogans, 
billboards, posters, flyers, etc., in addition to large amounts 
of cash.  According to this latest rumor, the NNP asked the PRC 
provide them with green tee shirts with their slogan but 
discovered when the shipment arrived boxes full of yellow 
tee-shirts with the NNP "let the progress continue" slogan on 
them.  The NNP supposedly refused delivery and the shirts sit 
unclaimed at the port.  We have no independent verification. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Concerns about the pasts of several National Democratic 
Congress (NDC) candidates as active members of the now-defunct 
New Jewel Movement (NJM) of Maurice Bishop and Bernard Coard 
[which fomented the 1979 coup and the subsequent repressive 
People's Revolutionary Government (PRG)] are spoken of in 
whispers.  Some older Grenadians, especially those imprisoned by 
the revolutionaries, fear that if NDC takes power, these 
individuals will revert to type.  In addition, there has been a 
revival of longstanding rumors that, should the NDC win, current 
NDC political leader Tillman Thomas would be pushed aside or 
otherwise removed (we have heard each of these variations) so 
that one of the former NJM members could take over. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The liberal use of revolutionary-era language by NDC 
candidates has exacerbated fears among some Grenadians that 
intimidation could be used against voters when they cast their 
ballots.  The NNP's youngest candidate alleged in late June that 
he and his mother have received death threats.  Another NNP 
candidate was told recently that "when the NDC wins, we will 
deal with you".  While the threats have not deterred either 
candidate from running, both families are worried about their 
safety.   The police have called on the population to maintain 
calm and the political parties to respect their opponents. 
Mitchell and Thomas have also urged calm.  Local 
non-governmental organizations, which drafted a code of conduct 
that all political parties have now signed, are expressing 
concern about the increasing "tribalism" of the campaign 
process.  There are reports of tee shirts burned, billboards 
vandalized, posters torn down, and verbal and physical attacks 
on rival party supporters. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Two candidates, one ULP, and one NNP, are campaigning 
with criminal charges pending.  ULP's Reynold Benjamin was 
charged with fraud several months ago in connection with his 
relationship with Capital Bank International, a local failed 
institution.  NNP's Fitzroy Bideau was charged on July 1 with 
assault for grabbing and threatening a 17-year old girl after 
she taunted him with his record as Commissioner of Police (COP). 
 NOTE: Bideau was COP during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and was 
fired for incompetence after he remarked that "police are people 
too" in response to multiple reports of RGPF officers looting 
abandoned shops and houses when they were supposed to be 
stopping looters.  Should they win seats and then be convicted, 
special elections would have to be held. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶12. (SBU) Grenada's election is too close to call at this point. 
 Grenadians are frustrated by the lack of solid information 
coming out of the campaigns and the level of personal attacks. 
About 21 percent of those polled recently said they were 
undecided.  Embassy contacts speculate that people do not trust 
pollsters not to tell others how they will vote, as they 
themselves would not keep someone else's vote a secret if they 
 
GRENADA 00000092  003 OF 003 
 
 
knew.  Grenadians supporting the NNP read the result as positive 
for their party, and those supporting the NDC say it means their 
party will win.  A third school of thought is that Grenadians 
are waiting to see who will give them the best handout - an 
electoral tradition in Grenada.  Bushing, which also takes place 
around major holidays, is a boon to the unemployed and involves 
gangs of people paid by politicians to clear brush and clean 
roads in their neighborhoods.  Grenadians take pride in keeping 
their villages clean and brightly painted, but in the run-up to 
the election, the country is the cleanest it has been in a long 
time.  The violence, the death threats, and the use of political 
party colors almost as gang colors has also turned many 
Grenadians off.  They say they will vote, but mostly they want 
the process over with, regardless of who wins. 
MCISAAC