Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ALGIERS716
2007-05-24 11:33:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

CONTROVERSY ON VOTE COUNT LINGERS FOLLOWING

Tags:  PGOV KDEM AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 5955
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RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6618
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RUEPGBA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ALGIERS 000716 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM AG
SUBJECT: CONTROVERSY ON VOTE COUNT LINGERS FOLLOWING
LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS

REF: ALGIERS 680

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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ALGIERS 000716

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM AG
SUBJECT: CONTROVERSY ON VOTE COUNT LINGERS FOLLOWING
LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS

REF: ALGIERS 680

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


1. (C) SUMMARY: Said Bouchair, the president of the
independent election commission, and Noureddine Zerhouni, the
minister of interior, are engaged in a very public battle on
the transparency of the May 17 vote for national parliament.
After Zerhouni said Bouchair's letter to President Bouteflika
outlining irregularities in the election process had been
withdrawn with an apology, Bouchair -- and all members of the
independent commission except the representatives of the main
government party, the FLN, and the communist Workers' Party
-- fired back saying the letter had not been withdrawn and
reflected the consensus of the commission. Bouteflika has
remained silent on the controversy, at least while the
certification process of the vote and various appeals
processes run their course. Likewise, most political parties
have declined to discuss their complaints in detail with us.
The president of the secular opposition RCD acknowledged some
irregularities and thought the seriousness of the
irregularities this time exceeded what occurred during the
2002 legislative elections. A senior official at the
Islamist MSP told us May 22 that there were voting
irregularities throughout Algeria, but he opined that there
was less fraud than in previous elections. Attention is now
turning to a widely expected imminent cabinet shuffle. While
there is no consensus on the shape of the future cabinet,
there is general speculation that Mohamed Bedjaoui will no
longer be Foreign Minister and that PM Belkhadem will retain
his post. A sociologist from the University of Algiers
predicted to us that Algeria is headed towards another 1988
when political and economic frustration suddenly spilled out
into the streets of all of Algeria's major cities. Nearly
all observers doubt there will be any sudden threat to
stability of the government, but most think discontent is
slowly building in the cities and towns. Regrettably, the
elections have done little to encourage public faith in the
democratic process, and marked a lost opportunity to advance
Algeria's political evolution. We don't know yet whether the

newly elected parliament will be a more serious institution
that helps promote accountability and helps build fraying
public trust. We will need to get a sense of the new
leadership of the parliament and then decide whether or not
it makes sense to sustain our engagement with the parliament
through MEPI. End Summary.

INDEPENDENT ELECTION COMMISSION CRIES FOUL
-------------- -------------- --------------


2. (U) Said Bouchair, president of the independent election
commission overseeing the May 17 parliamentary elections,
sent a letter the day of the elections to President
Bouteflika reporting that electoral incidents
(irregularities) were reported by political parties' polling
place observers across Algeria during Thursday's legislative
elections. According to press reports, the commission's
letter called on Bouteflika to intervene in order to stop the
quote serious abuses that have accompanied the electoral
process and which have exceeded the limits of isolated cases
end quote. Bouchair further indicated in the letter that
some polling stations, notably Rouiba in the wilaya
(province) of Algiers, refused to open ballot boxes to verify
that they were empty before the polling began. He wrote that
some ballot boxes had been filled with envelopes in favor of
candidates of the National Liberation Front (FLN) and
complained that some polling stations had not had on hand
ballots for certain political parties. He cited the cases of
the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) in Blida and the
Movement for a Society at Peace (MSP) in Saida with respect
to the latter. The letter criticized the FLN's campaign
activities on the day of the vote (in violation of Algerian
law) notably in Ait Timouchent. In another complaint, the
letter noted that some itinerant polling stations for nomads
and tribes in El Oued were confiscated and hidden by voters
who wanted to protest against the holding of the election.
The letter was signed by Bouchair and all political party
members of his commission, except the FLN and communist
Workers' Party, according to press reports.


3. (U) In his May 18 press conference, Interior Minister

ALGIERS 00000716 002 OF 004


Zerhouni responded to Bouchair's letter, downplaying its
significance by noting the letter had been withdrawn hours
after it was written (ref). He also remarked that Bouchair
had apologized for writing the letter. In May 19 statements
to the press, Bouchair took issue with Zerhouni's
characterization of events, stating that Zerhouni's
declarations were quote totally irresponsible unquote and
underlining that he had not and would not retract the letter.
(He noted he had no authority to do so since the large
majority of political parties on the commission had insisted
he send it and he was only the coordinator of the
commission.) Bouchair added that the Interior Minister ought
to apologize for the poor conduct of the elections and
explain how the problems had occurred. The independent
election commission headed by Bouchair backed his position,
expressing in a press release its surprise at the
declarations made by Interior Minister. In the press
release, the commission affirmed that the letter addressed to
the president was quote the fruit of a collective work and
Said Bouchair was instructed to explain the letter to the
press and has nothing to apologize for end quote. The
commission further underscored that it had accomplished its
mission of safeguarding the national interest in the
elections by rejecting all attempts aimed at undermining the
credibility of the balloting process despite the very
different views of the political parties represented on the
commission.

POLITICAL PARTIES LETTING THE APPEALS PROCESS WORK
-------------- -------------- -------------- --------------


4. (C) Most of the political parties that we contacted for
comment on the letter controversy declined to offer an
opinion. With uncharacteristic uniformity, the parties told
us it was inappropriate to comment on such matters,
especially before the Constitutional Council had issued the
final election results and all possible appeals were
exhausted. RCD's Mohcine Belabbas and the Workers' Party
Abdelhamid Boubaghla, representatives of the two largest
opposition parties (based on unofficial returns) worried that
declarations or comments might (negatively) affect our
parties. Farid Hebaz, the top aide to the Muslim Brotherhood
affiliated MSP party leader Abudjerra Soltani, himself a
cabinet minister, told Ambassador May 22 that there had been
voting irregularities across Algeria. He alleged there were
instances of ballot box stuffing in the eastern province of
el Oued and in the cities of Algiers and Constantine. He
said the MSP for the most part was able to get its observers
into polling stations, although he claimed there were
instances where they were blocked. Hebez also observed that
there was no supervision over the transmission of vote counts
up the chain. Nonetheless, Hebaz opined that in general the
conduct of the elections was better than in elections past.
Hebaz and Noureddin Ait Messoudene, the MSP executive
director, in separate conversations each tended with us to
downplay the perception of gigantic fraud. They each
underlined that MSP would accept the final decisions of the
Council.


5. (C) Said Sadi, president of the second-largest
opposition party for the coming parliament, told DCM May 22
that his party had seen evidence that political party
observers at some polling stations had signed blank tally
sheets, rather than signing off on the vote tally as counted
at the poll. (Hebaz made the same accusation.) Sadi, whose
party boycotted the 2002 legislative elections, said the
irregularities in the 2002 elections were "less serious" than
those of which he was aware this time. Sadi also opined that
the security services engineered the victories for the large
number of small parties that won seats to create a
"cacophony" in parliament and thereby dilute the speeches of
the traditional opposition parties. (Note: We expect the
parties will provide more details about their complaints once
the appeals process with the Constitutional Council fully
runs its course. End Note.)


6. (C) The Constitutional Council certified the election
results May 21, making minor adjustments in the total seats
originally allocated (reftel) by the interior ministry.
After the Council's intervention, RND picked up an additional
seat at the expense of MSP, and the small National Algerian

ALGIERS 00000716 003 OF 004


Front (FNA) picked up two seats at the expense of the
National Party for Solidarity and Development. The Council
based its decisions on complaints filed by political parties
following the balloting. The May 21 decisions are not final,
however, and political parties had the right to file
additional complaints on May 22 on which the Council will
rule shortly.

ABSTENTION RATE SIGNALS VOTE OF PUBLIC NO CONFIDENCE
-------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- ---


7. (C) Algerian political leaders and experts expressed
disappointment at the low voter turnout -- officially 35.51
percent, though said by many observers to be much lower.
RCD's Sadi noted that turnout was historically low in the
Berber provinces and Algiers. Abdelkrim Ait Abdelrahman,
professor of politics and international relations at the
University of Algiers, told us the poor turnout showed that
Algerians were not interested in parliament and how it works.
They lacked confidence in MP's who shower the populations
with promises during the campaign and never deliver on them.
He maintained that the elections were a referendum on the
government's performance, as represented by the three
presidential coalition parties, and the confidence of youth
in the political process. Youth, the professor said, clearly
expressed a vote of "no confidence" in that the voters were
overwhelmingly their elders. Lakhdar Benkhellaf, national
secretary of Abdallah Djaballah's Islah (who was excluded

SIPDIS
from the elections),said the elections clearly demonstrated
the people's lack of confidence in state institutions and
showed that Algerians were mature enough, faced with
restricted choices, to abstain from voting. Of more personal
interest, Benkhellaf noted that Islah under the leadership of
Mohamed Boulahia won only three seats in parliament, a far
cry from the 40 seats that Islah, under Djaballah's
leadership in the 2002 parliamentary elections, had won.
Here again, said Benkhellaf, the Algerian people showed they
were not fools. Hebaz from the Islamist MSP was happy about
his party picking up 13 seats but he too commented that the
elections demonstrated declining public confidence in the
system. It was imperative, he noted, that the political
system generally, and the election system as an element of
that, be more transparent and open. He was not optimistic
about change soon, however.

CABINET CHANGE MAY BE LITTLE CHANGE
-------------- -------------- --------------


8. (C) With the elections done, the issue of constitutional
revision is resurfacing. Respected political journalist for
the French-language Expression Brahim Takhroubt told us not
to expect any constitutional amendments this calendar year.
He said the low voter turnout signaled to the government that
any constitutional reforms should be put on hold. Besides,
there was no provision in the budget for holding a referendum
in 2007. While Takhroubt did not rule out passing such
measures by parliamentary vote, he thought the political
class would not want to deal with constitutional reforms
before the October local elections. An expert on the FLN,
Takhroubt said he expected PM Belkhadem would be retained as
prime minister, in spite of his party's relatively poor
showing. Most other contacts with whom we have spoken
concurred. Takhroubt expected Bouteflika's reappointment of
Belkhadem would be conditioned on Belkhadem's agreeing to
include opposition parties in the cabinet, possibly the
Algerian National Front (FNA) and RCD, though RCD's Said
indicated he expected to remain in opposition. In general,
there are as many views of what the new cabinet will look
like as there are contacts, though with the passing days
expectations of signficant changes . There is, however, a
general expectation that FM Bedjaoui will either move to
Justice (to close out his career where he began it) or
retire. (The names widely circulating on the cocktail
circuit to replace Bedjaoui include former UN envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi, now teaching at Princeton, and Algeria's ambassador
to Mali, Abdelkrim al-Gharieb.)

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


9. (C) COMMENT: President Bouteflika has remained silent

ALGIERS 00000716 004 OF 004


despite the public spat between Bouchair and his interior
minister. Whatever doubts about the process may linger, we
expect him to stand by the election results, which the
Constitutional Council, whose president is a stolid member of
the FLN establishment, appears unlikely to change further.
This election, marked by low turnout, a remarkably high
ballot-spoilage rate (about 15 percent),and various
complaints of irregularities, signaled near-total inertia in
the political system. The elections in terms of mechanics
and outcome are not so different from those of 1997 or even

2002. The entire system, including the role the Parliament
has played so far under the 1996 constitution, has generated
great public cynicism. Our senior contacts in the political
class here have concluded uniformly that the system has
effectively frozen, and there's no sign of when they might
un-freeze again. Their views differ markedly, however, over
how serious the situation is. Zoubir Arrous, a University of
Algiers sociologist told Ambassador May 21 that Algeria is
headed towards another 1988 with its widespread rioting by
unhappy youth. Others, more numerous, anticipate Algeria
simply continue to limp along as it has for the last few
years even as discontent slowly builds in the cities and
towns. Regrettably, the elections have done little to
encourage public faith in the democratic process, and marked
a lost opportunity to advance Algeria's political evolution.
It is too early to know whether or not the newly elected
parliament will take a more activist role in government. If
it was more aggressive in terms of insisting on government
accountability, it could help start to rebuild public
confidence. We will need to get a sense of whether the new
leadership of the parliament is more serious about trying to
build pluralistic decision making in government and thus
whether or not it makes sense for us to sustain our
engagement with the parliament through MEPI.
FORD