VZCZCXRO7176
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #0015 0131710
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 131710Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0022
INFO ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0002

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000015 
 
SIPDIS 
AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PASS TO AMEMBASSY MALABO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/13 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IV
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR CALM, SETS UP OBSERVATION 
COMMITTEES 
 
REF: 10 ABIDJAN 13 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Tanya Salseth, Political Officer, DoS; REASON: 1.4(B), 
(D) 
 
¶1.       (SBU)   SUMMARY:  On January 12, Prime Minister Guillaume 
Soro publicly declared that the current Independent Electoral 
Commission (CEI) scandal has not jeopardized the integrity of the 
voters' list.  However, to ensure that there are no doubts about 
the integrity of the list, the four other technical structures 
involved in the identification and voter registration process 
(SAGEM, ONI, INS, CNSI) have been instructed by the PM's office to 
send representatives to 70 observation committees that will oversee 
the adding and subtracting of names from the provisional list.  END 
SUMMARY 
 
 
 
¶2.       (SBU)  On January 12, Prime Minister Soro held a meeting 
with all of the technical structures involved in the identification 
and voter registration process (SAGEM, ONI, INS, CNSI, CEI) to 
discuss the way forward following allegations of fraud on the part 
of CEI President Robert Mambe (reftel).  SRSG Choi, OPA Facilitator 
Boureima Badini, and the press were also present.  The PM called 
for calm and explained that although the CEI had acted on its own 
accord in running additional name checks on the provisional voters' 
list, the 429,000 names in question had not been added to nor 
subtracted from the initial list of 1.033 million "unverified" 
names.  PM Soro reaffirmed that the provisional voters' list, which 
contains some 5.3 million names in total, had not been permanently 
altered.  In order to allay concerns over the integrity of the 
list, Soro also said his office is instructing all five technical 
structures involved in the electoral process to each send one 
representative  to 70 local observation committees, which will be 
set up in the coordination centers.  These new five-person 
observation committees will monitor the modification of the 
provisional voters' list - a step that had initially been the sole 
responsibility of the CEI. 
 
 
 
¶3.       (C)  Poloff spoke with SAGEM's head representative Fabien 
Rouaud on January 12.  He confirmed that SAGEM had already deployed 
its 70 agents to the field to monitor the "scrubbing" of the 
provisional voters' list, and SAGEM was the first and only 
structure to have its agents already in place.  Rouaud also told 
Poloff that it would be "impossible" for the CEI to tamper with the 
database used to produce the provisional list, as only SAGEM has 
access to it.  The CEI was using an electronic copy of information 
generated from the SAGEM database and not the database itself.  The 
initial SAGEM contract stipulated that the CEI would make the 
necessary changes to this electronic copy and then return the copy 
to SAGEM to produce the final voters' list.  Rouaud said that, due 
to the recent allegations of fraud, the "scrubbing" of the list 
will now be done under the oversight of the 70 observation 
committees.  SAGEM will be responsible for inputting and deleting 
names from the list. 
 
 
 
¶4.       (C)  COMMENT:  Although the PM's remarks might reassure 
Ivoirians that the voters' list has not been compromised, they may 
not be enough to placate President's Gbagbo's party, which appears 
incensed over the CEI's recent actions. For example, Poloff heard 
from UN sources that Gbagbo is considering raising this issue with 
the Permanent Consultative Framework.  Many longtime observers of 
the electoral process believe that the FPI's overreaction is yet 
another tactic  to stall elections.  (Indeed, SRSG Choi told 
Ambassador last week that Gbagbo is no longer confident of winning; 
Mambe's actions come at a particularly opportune time.) That said, 
the PM reiterated that the period for filing challenges to the 
provisional electoral list officially ended on January 9.  There is 
some question about whether this will hold, as Gbagbo has been 
actively pushing to extend the cutoff date.  It also remains to be 
seen how much more the set-up of these new observation committees 
will delay the printing of the final voters' list, and with it, the 
presidential election.  END COMMENT 
NESBITT