ARE THE SENEGALESE SPEAKER'S DAYS NUMBERED?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 002165 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2017 TAGS: PGOV PINS SOCI ECON PINR KDEM SG SUBJECT: ARE THE SENEGALESE SPEAKER'S DAYS NUMBERED? Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE D,AFFAIRES JAY T. SMITH FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) National Assembly President Macky Sall and presidential son Karim Wade's battle to succeed Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has become the source of an expanding rift within the ruling Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS). Partisans on both sides are flooding the media with accusations and counter-accusations. Karim's camp is accusing Sall of deliberating over-stepping his and the National Assembly,s authority when they had the "audacity" to ask the directors of the National Agency for the Organization of the Islamic Conference (ANOCI),of which Karim serves as chairman, to testify before the Finance Committee on the status of many new construction projects around Dakar. End Summary. Calling Karim to Account -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The National Assembly has been asking quasi-government agencies to come to the parliament to testify before the Finance Committee in informal closed hearings. One of these invitations was sent to the Karim-led ANOCI and this set off a furor of condemnation against former prime minister and PDS number two Macky Sall. The infamous letter, which has not been published as it is apparently classified secret, convoked the directors of ANOCI, not Karim who serves as head of the supervisory board, to testify before the committee. Partisans of Karim, perhaps sensing an opening, immediately accused Sall of setting a trap in order to make him look bad, arguing that Sall could not order him to testify and that the letter should have never been sent directly to ANOCI. Alioune Tine, the well-connected president of the human rights group RADDHO, told PolOffs that a group of pro-Karim supporters also lit a fire under President Wade by telling him that Sall was going to bring in reporters and that his son would be peppered with questions in Wolof, the most widely spoken language in Senegal and one which the half-French Karim speaks poorly, in order to embarrass him in front of the Senegalese people. Wade forbade his son to go the Parliament and reprimanded Macky Sall saying that the letter should have been set to him as the nominal head of all of Senegal,s agencies and not to ANOCI. ¶3. (SBU) According to Sall's supporters this story has been blown out of proportion and Karim's and Dakar mayor Pape Diop's cronies are spreading lies. In a recent newspaper article Sall's director of communication said that all relevant procedures were properly followed. According to him, the letter was sent to ANOCI via the Minister in Charge of Parliamentary Relations and that the letter was addressed to the directors of ANOCI and not to anyone by name. The Dogs Have Been Let Out -------------- ¶4. (C) The anti-Macky Sall campaign has begun in earnest as President Wade's attack dogs have been unleashed. Sall has always been somewhat of an anomaly, plucked from obscurity by Wade and rising through the party with phenomenal speed. He has engendered a lot of jealousy amongst PDS stalwarts who see him as an upstart. The group is lead by the Mayor of St. Louis and Minister of Local Government, Ousmane Masseck Ndiaye, and includes Tambacounda PDS leader and presidential hatchet man Khoureissi Thiam, Minister of Transportation Farba Senghor, and PDS spokesman Abdou Fall. Both Ndiaye and Thiam are reportedly motivated by the prospect of potential promotions in any upcoming cabinet re-shuffle as both were in effect demoted during the creation of this current cabinet. All of them, some more subtly than others, have suggested/asked that Sall resign his positions as president of the National Assembly and as PDS deputy secretary general. ¶5. (C) PDS spokesman Fall, who is known to be a friend of Macky Sall, suggested that Sall meet with Wade to explain the situation. If Wade and Sall could not resolve their differences, he recommended that Sall should step down so as to "not bother the President." On November 1, that meeting took place at the behest of Sall says Mamamdou Oumar Ndiaye (strictly protect),the editor of the small-time paper "Le Temoin" and a well-known PDS mediator. He told us that his sources informed him that Sall had left the meeting thinking that his problems with Wade had been resolved. Afterward during a press conference, a presidential spokesperson said that Wade had been informed of what had happened and that he would leave the matter up to the party to decide. Apparently DAKAR 00002165 002 OF 002 this change of heart occurred after his son called him from Paris to tell him that Sall could not be left off the hook so easily. As a result, a November 3 "emergency" meeting of the General Secretaries of the PDS Regional Federations chaired by Ousmane Masseck Ndiaye took up a proposal to disband the position of Deputy Secretary General of the PDS. Sall was represented at the meeting by his deputy. After seven hours of debate the pro-Macky Sall camp narrowly won the day by not having the proposal included in the final declaration. Is Karim Just a Pawn? -------------- ¶6. (C) Mamamdou Oumar Ndiaye told Poloffs that Karim, with whom he met on 23 October, had been convinced by his entourage that Sall was out to get him. Ndiaye believes that Karim is being manipulated by these cronies and that he remains politically nave. Ndiaye said that he told Karim it was imperative that he and Sall meet and patch up their differences as this was having a negative effect on the party. Karim responded that he would only meet Sall if the latter fires his press attach, Abdou Abel Thiam, and two newspaper editors whom Karim claims have been assailing him and ANOCI in the news. He then declared himself ready to go to parliament anytime he is called to testify. Ndiaye quipped that Karim can be somewhat paranoid and seems to be controlled by people who are much more politically savvy than he. ¶7. (C) On October 25 Ndiaye met with Macky Sall. He informed us that Sall told him that his intentions were not to take on Karim but to offer ANOCI an opportunity to defend itself against many accusations of corruption and mismanagement that have been leveled at the projects. ANOCI has been under fire because all the projects it is managing are delayed and it is unlikely that most of the venues will be ready for the March 2008 OIC conference. According to Ndiaye, Sall said he had no problems in meeting Karim and lamented that this affair had reached this point, adding that a few ill-intentioned people who were looking to push him aside were the real source of the conflict. Sall then admitted that even though it was the right thing to do in governance and rule of law terms, he had made a major political blunder in calling ANOCI to parliament without first consulting Wade. Ndiaye told us that he is currently working on setting up the meeting between Sall and Karim and that he would let us know if and when it takes place. Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) Already weakened by his perceived "demotion" from Prime Minister to President of the National Assembly, Macky Sall seems to have become fair game for PDS opportunists who are trying to enthrone Karim and knock him out of any contention to succeed Wade. While Wade has not asked Sall to step down, the fact that Wade did not endorse him and chose to pass the matter onto his apparatchiks indicates that Sall's position is tenuous. Irrespective of who wins this succession battle, the biggest loser will be Senegal's democratic process. ANOCI is an agency that is spending a significant share of Senegal's budget to revamp some portions of Dakar and many commentators have rightly pointed out that such a body should be invited to testify and account for where and how the country's money is being spent. It is unclear if such an accounting will ever take place. Furthermore, the ease with which the head of a legislative body can be removed at the whim of the Executive and Wade's lack of tolerance for any dissent, indeed the entire struggle to simply anoint a successor to Wade, brings into question the strength of Senegal's democracy which has seen a fair amount of backsliding since the beginning of President Wade's second term. End Comment. ¶9. (U) Visit Embassy Dakar's SIPRNET website at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar. SMITH SMITH