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