AMBASSADOR PUSHES ON ELECTION IRREGULARITIES WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001700

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM AG
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR PUSHES ON ELECTION IRREGULARITIES WITH
GOA

REF: A. ALGIERS 1662


B. ALGIERS 1559

C. ALGIERS 1527

Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: We got mixed reactions from Algerian
government interlocutors when the Ambassador raised questions
about the transparency of the local election process with the
MFA Director General for the Americas and with the
(government) human rights commission. The MFA official
bristled and said the Ambassador had no business raising
issues that are Algeria's internal affairs. She defended the
Ministry of Interior's actions, and she certainly had no
authority to do more. The President of the National
Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
acknowledged some of the problems, and agreed the lack of an
independent election commission diminished the election's
credibility. He also acknowledged that the Interior Ministry
was too quick to label candidates it didn't like as security
risks without giving anyone the right to verify the alleged
negative information. The Ambassador noted to both officials
that democratic evolution in Algeria obviously will be
gradual but we hoped that the November 29 local elections
would mark a step forward. We are not sure this will be the
case. The MFA official said we should not prejudge the
balloting operations. The human rights commission head
agreed there are problems and Algeria needs to do better.
Looking beyond the November 29 local election balloting, we
need to start thinking about how we might offer to help
address election process problems as the 2009 presidential
election nears. END SUMMARY.

NO ELECTION COMMISSION
--------------


2. (C) In November 20 meetings with MFA Director General for
the Americas Fatiha Selmane and Human Rights Commission
President Farouk Ksentini, the Ambassador raised concerns
about the fairness and transparency of the November 29 local
election process, highlighting reports of Interior Ministry
pressure on various parties' candidates and the government's
declining to set up an independent election monitoring
commission (see refs). The Ambassador stressed in both
meetings that we understand that democratic evolution in
Algeria will be a gradual process but we had hoped that the
local elections would mark a step forward. Reports that the
Interior Ministry was blocking candidates from running on the
grounds of unverified security information and that police
were pressuring other candidates to withdraw were
disquieting. Had there been an independent commission, the
Ambassador noted in both meetings, there would have been the
possibility of a third-party intervening promptly to ensure
proper application of the election law. The MFA official
bristled when the Ambassador raised our concerns and warned
that the elections were an internal process that the
Ambassador had no business questioning. When the Ambassador
pressed, she responded that we should not pre-judge the
process before its completion on November 29. With barely a
week remaining until election day, Selmane opined that it was
not too late to set up an election monitoring commission.
Ambassador noted that the campaign was nearly finished and we
evaluated the fairness of an election not just through the
balloting but also by the openness of the preceding campaign.


3. (C) While noting that Algerian law did not require an
independent election monitoring commission, Ksentini did not
reject the Ambassador's assertion that having one could have
raised the credibility of the election process. Ksentini
stressed amicably but repeatedly that Algerian political
actors should be able to settle their disputes without an
independent commission; they should act like adults, he
observed. Ambassador noted that we want stability in
Algeria, but the widespread disinterest in the political
process suggests that this political process is not helping
stabilize Algeria. Ksentini immediately agreed the
disinterest is a serious problem. He opined, however, that
having a commission would change little, particularly in
terms of voter participation, because political parties have
done a poor job of developing good campaign messages and
attracting voters. Even if there were a commission, he
added, most Algerians would merely perceive it to part of a

ALGIERS 00001700 002 OF 002


system they already view as rotten. Looking forward,
Ksentini added that establishing a commission before the 2009
presidential election would be a good idea.

THE EVER-PRESENT INTERIOR MINISTRY
--------------


4. (C) In both meetings, Ambassador cited examples of
government coalition and opposition parties suffering from
apparently subjective rulings by local Interior Ministry
officials that forced candidates off election slates. He
highlighted that governors or local police often alleged that
a particular person was a security risk but allowed no one to
access the alleged negative information. One such case
involved a former Algerian senator and the information was
hardly self-evident, he noted. Both Selmane and Ksentini
said political parties could make use of an administrative
appeal process, though Ksentini acknowledged that an appeal
would be slow, with any resolution likely to come after the
election. They noted that the courts had reinstated many
candidates removed from the lists by local officials'
administrative fiat. The Ambassador agreed that many had won
their cases in the courts, but not all and the evidence was
rarely presented in court. Ksentini acknowledged the
problems with the Interior Ministry's rejecting candidates
and said that this aspect of the election process had been
"badly managed." The Ambassador wondered if any Interior
Ministry official had been disciplined for excess zeal when
the courts had overruled a ministry decision, and Ksentini
said he knew of none. Further, he said that the courts had
played a useful role by rejecting some election-related
decisions made by walis (governors),but professed ignorance
of cases reported in the press concerning election-related
court orders that have been ignored.

COMMENT
--------------


5. (C) In both meetings there were GoA notetakers, and the
Ambassador's comments will certainly go higher up into the
Algerian system. We doubt strongly there will be any
lightening bolt of recognition from the Interior Ministry or
the GoA more broadly. The MFA official, especially with a
notetaker present, could hardly accept criticism of the
Algerian process and gave us a fairly standard line. The
human rights commission president gave a more nuanced view,
but even he was hard-pressed to point to gains made in terms
of an open and fair election process during the legislative
and local elections held in 2007. On a a more hopeful side,
there were plenty of problems with the candidate registration
process, but we have not heard of many instances of the
government interfering with the parties' campaigning. The
local election campaign has seen plenty of criticism directed
at the government, especially from opposition parties. (This
was also true during the legislative elections.) We will
keep watching the local election campaign closely as it moves
towards the November 29 election day. Thinking longer term,
we should begin identifying key problems from these
legislative and local election processess and think about how
we might offer to help address them, perhaps in tandem with
other Algerian partners, as the 2009 Algerian presidential
election nears. Even if the paranoid Algerian government
accepts that gradual democratic evolution will ultimately
bolster stability, convincing it to change the election
process will not be easy.
FORD