VZCZCXRO7126
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0522 1130840
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 230840Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2300
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 000522 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM ECON SG
SUBJECT: Senegal: Democracy, But no Checks and Balances 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 14, Senegal's National Assembly released 
a summary of its 2008 activities.  It was reported that the Assembly 
passed sixty-eight laws, of which only three were initiated by the 
Assembly itself, while all the others by the Executive branch.  The 
Assembly also passed seven resolutions and set up an inquiry 
committee on prohibitive rents in Dakar.  Despite Senegal's 
reputation as a democracy, the reality is that the National Assembly 
is merely a rubberstamp of Executive initiatives that provides no 
checks and balances.  End Summary 
 
Three bills 
----------- 
¶2. (SBU) Senegal's Constitution gives authority to both the 
Legislative and the Executive branches to initiate laws.  The 
Assembly has 150 deputies, and only 17 are from the opposition.  In 
2008, only three bills were initiated by deputies and even those 
three were at the behest of the Executive.  The first bill was to 
postpone local elections.  The other two bills amended the 
Constitution to allow President Abdoulaye Wade to reduce the term of 
the Chairman of the National Assembly from five years to one so that 
he could fire its then-President Macky Sall.  The seven resolutions 
either congratulated Wade and the GOS on various occasions or 
supported Wade in getting rid of Sall. 
 
Lack of expertise 
----------------- 
¶3. (SBU) The Assembly has one parliamentarian Assistant who works 
for the Finance Committee.  The Office of Legislative Affairs, that 
is the cornerstone of the Assembly in the passing of bills and the 
keeping of records, is understaffed with only seven employees.  Its 
Director wryly told Embassy that this year they were able to examine 
68 laws because there were fewer illiterates who became deputies 
following the June 2007 legislative elections.  In 2006, they were 
only able to pass 37 bills for the whole year and none was initiated 
by a Member of the Assembly.  But rather than illiteracy, he saw the 
lack of independence as the most severe constraint of the Assembly. 
He also blamed a practice of recruitment on the basis of political 
patronage rather than the need of the Assembly.  As a very basic 
example he gave the case of the "Calots Bleus" (blue berets) who 
were members of President Wade's unpaid private militia when he was 
in the opposition.  Some of these Calot Bleus have been recruited as 
cleaners by the National Assembly, but they refuse to perform this 
job, which they consider demeaning, nevertheless at the end of each 
month they receive their salaries. 
 
Weak Senate 
----------- 
¶4. (SBU) In addition to the Assembly, Senegal's recently 
reconstituted Senate is even weaker.  When he revived this body, 
President Wade had claimed that it was needed to add an extra level 
of expertise to the creation and review of laws.  According to 
unconfirmed but well known statistics at least 40 percent of the 
Senators are illiterate.  The Senate does not have its own premises 
and meets at the National Assembly.  A professional staff member of 
the Assembly told Embassy, "the Senate simply plagiarizes what we do 
here, this is why when they hold a meeting the media does not cover 
it; it's dj` vu for them."  In the public opinion it is common to 
hear calls for the elimination of the Senate which has become an 
institution that exemplifies all of the financial excesses of the 
Wade government. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶5. (SBU) Both the National Assembly and the Senate are costly and 
inefficient; institutions crippled by their lack of independence 
from the Executive and a voting system that ensures that a governing 
party has a massive majority in both bodies.  The statistics for the 
past year tend to reinforce that notion.  Despite a pledge by some 
members of the Assembly that this year would be different, the 
opposite has been the case.  Furthermore, Senegal's system allows 
for deputies to hold multiple positions such as mayors, meaning that 
most members are seldom in chambers.   Until there is a serious 
revision of the powers of the Assembly, especially its relationship 
with the Executive, it is doomed to remain an inconsequential body 
that acts only when asked to do so by the President 
Bernicat