OPPOSITION MP DETAILS OBJECTIONS TO ALGERIA'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000109

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM AG
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION MP DETAILS OBJECTIONS TO ALGERIA'S
VOTING PROCESS


Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: On January 22 Lakhdar Benkhellaf, a senior
MP from the moderate Islamist opposition party Islah
("Reform"),outlined for PolEc Chief four technical elements
of the Algerian electoral process that his party believes
must be changed to bring about transparent, fair elections in
Algeria: the way that ballots are presented to voters; the
influence of state agents in the balloting process; the
constraints on impartial election monitors; and the pressure
on members of the military and police to cast ballots for the
governing party. In addition, Benkhellaf reported (with some
skepticism) current speculation that parliamentary and local
elections expected in 2007 will be combined in a single
polling exercise, possibly in June. He also noted that FLN
party leader and Prime Minister Belkhadem had not delivered
on his promise to create a multipartisan committee to examine
changes to the electoral law. End Summary.

NOT ENOUGH MONEY BUDGETED FOR THREE ELECTIONS
--------------


2. (C) According to current planning, elections for the lower
house of parliament are expected to occur in May, with local
elections following in October. Benkhellaf reported that the
latest information coming from the parliamentary president's
office suggested that both sets of elections would be held in
June, but he was skeptical. The driving issue, in his view,
was the government budget for 2007. It provided enough
funding for only two elections, because parliament had
expected at the time of the budget's passage that a
referendum on constitutional changes would take place in

2006. Since the referendum did not happen in 2006,
Benkhellaf theorized, the government's stated intention of
holding it in 2007 could only be accommodated if two of the
three elections were combined. He said it was clear the
ruling party (which he takes to be the FLN, the lead party in
the coalition, because the prime minister heads it) wanted
the constitutional referendum to stand alone. That meant the
other two elections would have to occur simultaneously.

MULTIPLE BALLOTING FAVORS THE RULING PARTY
--------------


3. (C) Islah strongly opposes combining the parliamentary and
local elections, believing that the party candidate lists
would be too unwieldy for voters to decipher. Benkhellaf
explained that it is common for up to 20 political parties
(most of them minor) to present candidates for a given poll.
Each party is the subject of a different ballot paper.
Consequently, when voters go to cast a ballot, they must pick
up a stack of 20 ballot papers, sort through them, physically
mark the ballot of the party they wish to vote for, insert
the marked ballot in an envelope, seal the envelope, and drop
it in a ballot box. If both municipal and parliamentary
elections are combined, there could be 40 pieces of paper for
voters to sort through.


4. (C) According to Benkhellaf, the more parties there are,
the more likely it is that a voter will turn to a poll worker
for help. He stressed that many Algerian voters cannot read
the ballots and ask the state-employed poll worker to mark
theirs for them. In Islah's view moreover, the more
complicated the voting is, the less likely voters are to take
it seriously. Benkhallaf also claimed that state employees
marking ballots of illiterate voters for the ruling party's
candidates are a major source of fraud. To combat this,
Islah and other parties pushed for the inclusion of party
symbols on ballots or colored ballots to permit illiterate
voters to ensure that poll workers mark the right one. The
government, according to Benkhellaf, has thus far refused to
allow the use this year of non-alphabetic characters,
although he said the inclusion a photo of the political
party's leader on the ballot now seems likely.


5. (C) According to Benkhellaf, Prime Minister Belkhadem's
promise last summer to create a committee comprised of all
major political parties to examine existing voting procedures
had never been fulfilled. Since then, the FLN and the
government have repeatedly told Islah the committee will be
organized "very soon." Islah and the other parties are still
waiting, he said. Benkhellaf concluded that the committee
would never be formed and that Belkhadem wanted to give the
appearance of supporting transparent elections without
actually doing so.

OUTSIDE MONITORS ARE TOO FEW TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE
-------------- --------------



6. (C) Benkhellaf acknowledged that the government normally
welcomes impartial, foreign election monitors to observe
balloting. He asserted, however, that a small number of
monitors positioned at select polling places cannot gauge the
extent of fraud in a country as large as Algeria (Africa's
second-largest state in area and the Arab world's
second-largest country in population). Benkhellaf opined
that observers would no doubt see a very clean and
transparent balloting process at any polling place they
observed this year. He also noted that the number of
illiterate voters is greatest away from the coast, in the
vast stretches of Algeria where international observers are
unlikely to set foot. Given the paltry number of
international monitors and the limits placed on their ability
to choose what polling places they observe, Benkhellaf
believed that the presence alone of monitors does not ensure
transparency.

PRESSURES FROM THE BARRACKS
--------------


7. (C) Benkhellaf's final complaint about elections was the
lock-step manner in which the police and military vote. He
noted that in Algeria all police, security services and
military personnel used to vote at their barracks or
workplace, not at polling places near their homes. While
this changed in 2003, the pressure on these employees of the
state to vote for the ruling party, in his view, remains
considerable. He maintained that it is rare for a member of
this group, given the pressure of peers and superiors, to
cast a ballot for another political party. What's more, he
claimed, this group of voters makes up a significant
percentage (Note: we estimate five percent) of the overall
voting population. Benkhellaf added that Islah believes the
government habitually pads the vote totals of all voters, not
just those on the state payroll, by tallying fabricated
ballots in favor of the ruling party as an extra layer of
protection against unwelcome results.


8. (C) COMMENT: Benkhellaf's objections to the mechanics of
Algerian elections track with what other opposition (and some
coalition) party representatives tell us. On the issue of
observers, the recently departed EU ambassador told the
Ambassador some weeks ago that it was doubtful the EU would
provide election observers for the Algerian balloting
expected this year. Even if they do provide observers,
Benkhellaf's examples suggest that pushing for token
monitoring of elections by outside observers here would
change little. His comments make clear that reform of the
electoral process is still needed. The Algerian government's
reluctance to support NDI's programs in recent months
suggests, however, that its enthusiasm for undertaking such
reform is currently limited.
FORD