VZCZCXRO0928
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0384/01 0851535
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261535Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2118
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000384 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM ECON SG
SUBJECT: Senegal Local Elections: Amateur Hour but Mostly Calm, 
Free, and Fair 
 
REF: Dakar 378 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On March 22, voters in Senegal's major cities 
voted in municipal, rural, and regional elections.  Embassy Dakar 
deployed 13 monitoring teams in order to observe the elections. 
Post assesses that for the most part the elections were calm, free, 
and fair, but amateur in they way they were run.  Almost every 
polling station in the country opened late and many did not have the 
required materials on hand.  For the most part, those who wanted to 
vote were able to do so and it is striking to note that the majority 
of voters were women.  There were no reports of attempts by the 
ruling party to block voters from going to the polls or to 
intmidate them into not going to the polls.  End Summry. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Embassy deployed 13 observer teamscovering multiple cities 
throughout the country. Four teams remained in Dakar covering the 
suburs of Guediawaye, Pikine, Rufisque, Keur Massar, Yeubeul, 
Malika, Grand-Yoff, Parcelles, Camberene, ann, Ouakam, and Yoff as 
well as in-city districs such as Plateau, Medina, Fann, Point-E, 
Amitie Guele Tape, Grand Dakar.  Teams were also sent toThies 
(covering Tivaouane), Kedougou, Touba (covering Mbacke and 
Diourbel), Mbour (covering Joal-Fadiouth), Kebemer (covering Louga), 
Kaolack (covering Fatick), Ziguinchor, (covering Oussouye), Matam 
(covering Ourosogui), and St Louis. 
 
  No Ballots, Late Starts 
----------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Many polling stations throughout Senegal faced eerily 
similar problems, such as a lack of adequate material and poor 
training for the presidents of the voting centers (Note: Each 
polling station is managed by a team of three people: a President, a 
Secretary and an Assistant. End note).  All thirteen teams reported 
that almost every polling station they visited, apart from the 
Franco-Arab School in the Point-E district of Dakar where President 
Abdoulaye Wade and his family voted (and were soundly beaten by the 
opposition) and a couple in Ziguinchor, started late.  According to 
the Electoral Code, polls are supposed to open at 8:00 a.m. and 
close at 18:00.  In most cases polls opened at around 9:00 a.m., 
although there were a number of extreme cases.  Polls in the Pikine 
suburb of Dakar, an opposition bastion where President Wade's 
motorcade was stoned during a visit, did not open until 15:00 
because the ballots had not been delivered, leading to accusations 
that the Government was actively engaging in voter suppression as a 
punishment for what the citizens did to the President.  In the 
region of Kolda, a number of polls did not open until 19:00.  As a 
result, those citizens in the affected polling stations will be 
re-voting on Saturday 28, 2009.  In Mbour, a Socialist stronghold 70 
kilometers south of Dakar, some bureaus waited to begin the vote 
until all the required material was delivered, but after an hour the 
presidents of the polling stations borrowed ballots from other 
bureaus to get started.  In one instance, the president of a bureau 
tried to start the vote with one party's list missing and an angry 
voter broke both ballot boxes.  The bureau received new boxes and 
got started around 10:00. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Another major problem was the confusion surrounding the 
ballots themselves and which party was competing in which election. 
This is because in this election voters were asked to vote twice, 
once to elect regional councilors and once to elect municipal and 
local councilors.  Many polling stations were either missing the 
necessary documents that outline which party was competing in which 
of these two elections or the electoral team was unable to decipher 
what was a fairly complicated chart as some smaller parties opted to 
only compete on the regional level and not on the municipal level or 
vice versa.  As a result, most observers reported that almost all of 
the voting offices they visited within the same polling station had 
a different number of ballots available for voters.  Furthermore, it 
seems that the presidents were not briefed on how to deal with such 
problems and in some cases were reluctant to call the Prefects (a 
regional official that reports directly to the Minister of Interior 
and who is the highest ranking administrative authority in a given 
region) until pushed to do so by party representatives, thus causing 
further delays.  In many instances, there were reports of missing 
materials such as ink or locks to secure the ballot boxes.  For 
example, in a polling station in the Guediawaye suburb of Dakar, the 
president had used string to "lock" the boxes. 
 
Few Observers, Some Police 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) According to all reports by both observers and the media, 
there were no cases of election-related violence throughout the 
country.   Each polling station had a small contingent of police and 
gendarmes who mostly kept to themselves once they had fulfilled 
their mission to guard the election materials.  In many instances, 
police could be seen sitting together in a shaded area watching 
people vote.  Emboff in Mbour reported that during the whole day his 
team met one observer from the human rights organization, RADDHO, 
 
DAKAR 00000384  002 OF 002 
 
 
who said he was local and was the only one covering the town.  His 
overall impression was that there were no big problems.  Similarly, 
PolCouns encountered only one representative of RADDHO during a full 
day of poll watching in the city of Ziguinchor in the Casamance 
region.  To our knowledge, the only other countries to do any 
election observing were Canada, France, Sweden, and the United 
Kingdom, all of whom stayed in Dakar.  In spite of some signs of 
potential violence in the lead-up to elections, there was none. 
Even in Ndindy in the Diourbel Region, one of the two rural 
communities where the late submission of election candidates to the 
National Electoral Committee had the potential of creating 
difficulties at the voting center (See REF), observers noted the 
presence of a large number of gendarmes with riot gear but they did 
not notice or hear of any difficulties at the center. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) While the turnout may have been fairly low, public interest 
in the results was high, especially as it began filtering out that 
the opposition had handed the ruling SOPI coalition and President 
Wade a major defeat.  Many were peeking through the windows outside 
polling stations and standing with their cell phones at the ready 
waiting for result announcements.  In Post's assessment, the 
election was mostly free and fair and went smoothly once the 
actually voting process was underway.  End Comment. 
 
BERNICAT