VZCZCXRO3387
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0032 0081249
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081249Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3586
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 000032 
 
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 SG
SUBJECT: Senegal: Looming Electoral Crisis 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In early December, the Ministry of Interior hosted 
a series of meetings with members of the ruling Senegalese 
Democratic Party (PDS) and opposition parties to discuss revisions 
to the Electoral Code.  Two days after the talks began the 
opposition Benno coalition walked out, outraged by what they said 
was the ruling party's unilateral push to make undemocratic 
amendments to the Code.  In a subsequent meeting with the 
Ambassador, the Benno leaders decried the uncooperative attitude of 
the ruling party arguing that President Abdoulaye Wade's sole 
objective is to use whatever means at his disposal to rig the 2012 
presidential elections for a favorable outcome.  They claimed that 
they were prepared to oppose the organization of any elections, 
violently if necessary.   End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In their meeting with Ambassador Bernicat, ten leaders of 
the opposition made the case that President Wade is seeking to 
distort the democratic process.  In his presentation for the group, 
Serigne Baye Thiam, the spokesperson for the Socialist Party, said 
that they had come to the meeting with the government to discuss 60 
points that had been drawn up for debate but that the first motion 
they had made was to have the discussions opened up to more people 
from civil society and NGOs.  Thiam recalled that in the 1990s and 
early 2000s talks to discuss electoral reform had always been 
chaired by someone with an independent profile.  The fact that this 
time these talks were being lead by the Director General of 
Elections at the Ministry of Interior showed that the government was 
bent on controlling the process and that they would not negotiate in 
good faith.  He underlined this by highlighting earlier 
announcements by Minister of Interior Becaye Diop, who said that 
polling hours should be extended to 22:00 and that journalists 
should be forbidden to announce any results in the media before the 
closing of the polls.  (Note: These early announcements via cell 
phones and independent commercial and community radios contribute to 
transparency, making it almost impossible for any one party to claim 
a false victory or forge documents in the formal process of 
aggregating votes at national level. End Note) According to Thiam 
this was a unilateral statement, and that the issue had never even 
come up during the talks. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Thiam then characterized as outrageous a Senegalese 
Democratic Party proposal that the official tally of votes in each 
voting station be considered valid without the signature of the 
various elections officials present.  He also criticized the 
arrogance of the ruling party when both Becaye Diop and Abdoulaye 
Babou, a senior PDS leader at the National Assembly, went on TV to 
say that if push comes to shove the PDS could act unilaterally to 
change whatever they wanted in electoral legislation. 
 
End of Consensus 
---------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) With the PDS now opting to use its political strength, as 
opposed to dialogue, to impose its agenda, the opposition views this 
development as the end of what has generally been a consensual 
process on electoral issues.  Additionally, opposition members 
characterized as very troubling Wade's move to force the head of the 
Autonomous National Electoral Committee (CENA) to resign. 
Meanwhile, the opposition has identified another potential area of 
fraud in the lack of reliable birth records and the issuance of 
birth certificates.  A senior opposition leader claimed to EmbOffs 
that this time the GOS is planning to use judges to issue birth 
certificates and administrative measures have already been taken to 
notify local courts to hold public rulings where judges can issue 
ordinances allowing people without a birth certificate to be issued 
one on the basis of oral testimonies. 
 
COMMENT 
-------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) There seems to be a flurry of electoral issues, which make 
some suspect that Wade might organize early elections in 2010 or 
early in 2011 rather than waiting until 2012.  Initiating major 
infrastructure projects and creating labor-intensive programs in the 
suburbs to employ young people seem to reinforce this notion.  In 
answer to a question about their disunity and whether they need to 
agree on a unified candidate before it is too late, the leader of 
the Socialist Party, Ousmane Tanor Dieng, forcefully claimed that 
they would not be driven by Wade's agenda.  Former Prime Minister 
Macky Sall added that they have an action plan to inform the 
Senegalese people about what is going in their country, but the 
reality remains that the President does drive Senegal's political 
agenda and he has every legal tool at his disposal, however 
unethical, to do what he wishes to ensure the most favorable 
conditions for a reelection victory. 
Bernicat