Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06NOUAKCHOTT287
2006-03-10 09:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Nouakchott
Cable title:  

SEVERE CENSUS PROBLEMS BUT SUCCESSFUL VOTER LIST

Tags:  PREL PGOV PHUM PINR EAID MR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NOUAKCHOTT 000287 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR EAID MR
SUBJECT: SEVERE CENSUS PROBLEMS BUT SUCCESSFUL VOTER LIST
STILL POSSIBLE

REF: NOUAKCHOTT 200

Classified By: Amb. Joseph LeBaron, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

--------------
(C) Key Points
--------------

-- According to electoral commission member Cheikh Saad Bouh
Kamara, as of March 2, the scheduled halfway point for the
census, only about 30% of all eligible voters have been
counted and registered. (This census is designed not to count
the number of all Mauritanians but to register those eligible
to vote.)

-- Given the slow progress in the census and associated voter
registration, the Ministry of the Interior will extend the
census by as much as one month, according to the UN,s
electoral assistance team.

-- The UN team has heard reports of Afro-Mauritanians having
a harder time getting national ID cards than have Moors, but
the team has no direct evidence of such discrimination.

-- Even with these problems, the June 24 constitutional
referendum has not (yet) been delayed.

------------
(C) Comments
------------

-- The census and associated national voter list are hugely
important.

-- If a flawed census produces a national voter list that
fails to meet international standards, then Mauritania will
be right back to where it was in 2003. During the 2003
presidential election, many Mauritanians viewed the election
of President Taya as fraudulent, because the national voter
list was incomplete and skewed.

-- Any political leader elected on the basis of a similarly
suspect voter list will lack legitimacy. That will encourage
political gridlock and more coup-plotting.

-- The Embassy continues to press the electoral commission
and transitional government to meet international standards
for the census and voter list. The Ambassador plans to speak
out publicly on the issue next week during a trip to northern
Mauritania, when he will meet with regional political party
leaders and election commission workers.

End Key Points and Comments.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NOUAKCHOTT 000287

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR EAID MR
SUBJECT: SEVERE CENSUS PROBLEMS BUT SUCCESSFUL VOTER LIST
STILL POSSIBLE

REF: NOUAKCHOTT 200

Classified By: Amb. Joseph LeBaron, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

--------------
(C) Key Points
--------------

-- According to electoral commission member Cheikh Saad Bouh
Kamara, as of March 2, the scheduled halfway point for the
census, only about 30% of all eligible voters have been
counted and registered. (This census is designed not to count
the number of all Mauritanians but to register those eligible
to vote.)

-- Given the slow progress in the census and associated voter
registration, the Ministry of the Interior will extend the
census by as much as one month, according to the UN,s
electoral assistance team.

-- The UN team has heard reports of Afro-Mauritanians having
a harder time getting national ID cards than have Moors, but
the team has no direct evidence of such discrimination.

-- Even with these problems, the June 24 constitutional
referendum has not (yet) been delayed.

--------------
(C) Comments
--------------

-- The census and associated national voter list are hugely
important.

-- If a flawed census produces a national voter list that
fails to meet international standards, then Mauritania will
be right back to where it was in 2003. During the 2003
presidential election, many Mauritanians viewed the election
of President Taya as fraudulent, because the national voter
list was incomplete and skewed.

-- Any political leader elected on the basis of a similarly
suspect voter list will lack legitimacy. That will encourage
political gridlock and more coup-plotting.

-- The Embassy continues to press the electoral commission
and transitional government to meet international standards
for the census and voter list. The Ambassador plans to speak
out publicly on the issue next week during a trip to northern
Mauritania, when he will meet with regional political party
leaders and election commission workers.

End Key Points and Comments.


1. (U) Emboffs met with members of the UN's Electoral

Assistance Team, an NDI representative and a member of the
National Independent Electoral Commission March eighth and
ninth to discuss the status of the census/voter registration
drive currently scheduled to end March 16.

--------------
CENSUS COUNT AND TIMELINE
--------------


2. (C) According to electoral commission member Cheikh Saad
Bouh Kamara, as of March 2 -- the scheduled halfway point for
the census -- 302,000 voters had been registered out of what
he estimated to be between 900,000 and 1,000,000 eligible
citizens. "The process is approximately 30 percent
complete," Kamara said, adding that "after hitting a few
delays in the first week we have begun registering people at
a faster pace."


3. (C) National Democratic Institute representative Eric
Duhaime told Ambassador on March 9 that the government and
electoral commission have "continued to lower the estimate of
eligible citizens from an original figure of more than 1.3
million, down to 1.1 million, and now to as low as 900,000,"
adding that "the census is clearly not going to be as
successful as some had originally hoped."


NOUAKCHOTT 00000287 002 OF 003



4. (C) Principal Technical Advisor for the UN,s Electoral
Assistance Project Mathieu Bile Bouah told DCM that the
decision to extend the census by two weeks to one month had
already been made within the government, but would not be
made public until just before the scheduled end of the census
on March 16. According to Bile this was designed to avoid
discouraging would-be voters from registering in accordance
with the current timeline.


5. (C) The voter lists -- which the National Office for
Statistics began creating March 2 -- are scheduled for
completion in May, with the Constitutional Referendum set for
June 24. However, the census extension will likely push the
completion of the voter lists into June. There has been no
discussion of a potential extension of the June 24 Referendum
date.

--------------
DISCRIMINATION IN THE CENSUS?
--------------


6. (C) The UN team has noted reports in the press and
elsewhere of Afro-Mauritanians having a harder time getting
National ID Cards and registering than Moors, but has no
direct evidence of such discrimination. The team has the
impression that the electoral commission is supportive of the
inclusion of all Mauritanians in the census, but does not
know if this sentiment is shared by the Ministry of the
Interior that is actually conducting the census.


7. (C) The team noted that whether institutionally encouraged
or not, discrimination of Afro-Mauritanians is a national
reality that could result in harassment or discrimination in
the National ID Card issuance and census processes.


8. (C) Kamara responded to this point by expressing his
confidence in the "open and fair approach" exhibited by the
officials. He gave several examples of registration problems
that have affected Moor and Afro-Mauritanian citizens alike,
and outlined the steps taken to ensure that future problems
are addressed in a timely manner -- including improved access
by citizens to regional and national electoral commission
members.


9. (C) Kamara added that while limited discrimination was
possible, the statistics he had seen showed healthy
registration and National ID Card issuance rates throughout
the country, including along the Senegal River where a
majority of the citizens are Afro-Mauritanian -- he was not
able to provide Poloff with specific statistics during the
meeting, but promised to do so in the subsequent days.
Kamara added that the government had taken several steps to
ensure strong Afro-Mauritanian participation in elections,
citing the voter lists which will be published in both Arabic
and French -- in past elections the lists were in Arabic
only, a language not spoken by many Afro-Mauritanians.

--------------
WHERE CAN VOTERS BE REGISTERED?
--------------


10. (C) In their General Assembly meeting March 3, members of
the National Independent Electoral Commission announced that
Mauritanian law prohibits the registration of voters or
candidates in an area that they had not resided in for at
least the previous six months. The electoral commission
followed the declaration with an official request to the
government to take action to stop the growing practice.
According to Kamara, the action was needed to "scare those
that had been hiring trucks and transporting citizens from
their community to other -- potentially more strategic --
areas to be registered to vote." Kamara went on to explain
that "many electoral zones have as few as 1,000 eligible
voters and such a transplanting of voters could greatly
affect the results of the municipal elections in these areas."


11. (C) According to Christine MacCallum, the Training Expert
with the UN,s Electoral Assistance Project, commission
members had received numerous calls on their personal phones
both in support of and opposition to such "displaced"
registration. The UN team believes that the commission was

NOUAKCHOTT 00000287 003 OF 003


thus under significant pressure to take a public stand on the
matter. Bile added that the electoral commission should have
investigated the matter more fully and suggested solutions to
the government, rather than merely making a legalistic
declaration and leaving it to the government for resolution.


12. (C) Bile also acknowledged that potential candidates are
registering in areas where they have tribal ties, rather than
where they live, in order to have a better chance of winning.
Also unresolved is where people who live in rural areas not
incorporated into a commune will be allowed to vote.

--------------
ELECTORAL COMMISSION PLANS FOR ELECTIONS
--------------


13. (C) Kamara said the electoral commission wants to hire
and train 4,000 representatives to ensure that one electoral
commission representative is present at each polling station
during elections. These representatives would serve as "the
eyes and ears of the commission" and could "help ensure that
there aren't any problems on election day," Kamara said. The
commission has asked the UN to provide funding and technical
training to achieve this. However, the UN team told Emboffs
that this was unlikely due to limited resources and timing
constraints.


14. (C) To address the difficulties of issuing National ID
Cards in rural areas (reftel) the electoral commission has
asked the Ministry of the Interior to provide mobile ID card
teams that could travel to remote areas and issue ID cards to
citizens far removed from the ID card centers located in
major cities.
LeBaron