"THE BLEEDING MUST STOP": FIRST FEMALE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANAA 001116

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - PARAS MARKED

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KDEM KWMN YM
SUBJECT: "THE BLEEDING MUST STOP": FIRST FEMALE
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DISCUSSES CAMPAIGN WITH AMBASSADOR

REF: 2005 SANAA 3558

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1. (SBU) Summary. On April 12, Ambassador met with Sumaya Raja,
Yemen's first female presidential candidate (reftel). Raja
explained that she was running as an independent candidate on
an anti-corruption platform. She hopes to generate support
from alienated groups, especially young voters. Ambassador
stressed that the U.S. Government would not get involved in
the politics, but would watch to see if the elections were
free and fair. Raja voiced her concerns about election
preparations, showing Ambassador evidence that election
officials registered children to vote. End Summary.

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"THE BLEEDING MUST STOP": Anti-Corruption Platform
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2. (SBU) Raja told Ambassador during a meeting at his residence
that she was running for president because she wanted to
fight corruption. She believes that corruption has increased
over the last five years, saying "the bleeding has to stop."
Emphasizing that she "intends to win," Raja said that even if
she lost, she would be satisfied if her campaign encouraged
public dialogue on corruption and accountability.


3. (SBU) Raja, who is self-financing her campaign, hopes to target
the "disaffected" for support, who she described as those
without strong tribal and religious ties and who are angered
by pervasive corruption. She introduced her campaign
manager, Mahfoutha al-Sifas, a political activist from
northern Yemen. Sifas told Ambassador the story of her last
foray into politics, when she ran for a parliamentary seat in
the 2003 elections. Sifas, running as an independent, was
ahead of the ruling party's candidate by thousands of votes
with 10 out of 13 districts counted. When all the district
results were counted, however, al-Sifas had somehow lost
votes from the previous tally and ended up losing to the
ruling party candidate.

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Free and Fair Elections?
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4. (SBU) Ambassador stressed that the USG would watch to see if
this year's elections are free and fair. In addition to
registration and voting, he continued, the campaign process
itself would also be monitored, stressing the need for free
public debate of the issues and equal access to the media for
all candidates. Raja agreed, adding that because newspapers
reach only two percent of the population, candidates must
have access to government-owned radio and television
stations. (Note: The ROYG controls all radio and television
stations within the country. End Note).


5. (SBU) Raja shared her concerns that elections procedures were
already being compromised. One of her primary concerns was
that children were being registered to vote. She showed
Ambassador color copies of voter registration cards for 10
voters listed as 22 years old, but whose pictures appear to
be of children well-under the legal voting age of 18. Raja
also expressed concern for her own safety. "I know the
President," she said, "and he would not condone any violence
against opposition candidates, but he has lots of supporters
who like to do him favors."

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Comment
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6. (SBU) Raja herself admits that she is a tough sell to the
Yemeni public. She has not lived in Yemen for 10 years and
is divorced from a foreigner. In fact, any candidate -- male
or female -- who runs as an independent will find it
difficult to break into the relatively closed Yemeni
political system, which is dominated by a handful of powerful
government officials and tribal leaders. As she stated,
however, her campaign could play an important role in
encouraging public dialogue about corruption and women's
political participation. Already, her candidacy has
encouraged two more women to become presidential candidates.
Unfortunately, however, Raja's candidacy seems to be
generating more interest and coverage in the international
media than the local press, which is consumed at the present
with the larger issues of fraud that Raja has also raised.


7. (SBU) Post will follow-up on the accusations of fraudulent
registration with the Supreme Commission on Elections and
Referendum (SCER) as well as the National Democratic
Institute, which is planning to monitor the September
elections, and which is providing support to the SCER to
update its voter registration rolls, specifically to

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CORRECTED COPY FOR PARAGRAPH MARKINGS

eliminate underage voters.
Krajeski