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