Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07DAKAR2165
2007-11-09 09:25:00
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN
Embassy Dakar
Cable title:  

ARE THE SENEGALESE SPEAKER'S DAYS NUMBERED?

Tags:  PGOV PINS SOCI ECON PINR KDEM SG 
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VZCZCXRO2617
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #2165/01 3130925
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 090925Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9510
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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
-------

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