PARLIAMENTARY GENDER PARITY LAW NOT AS GOOD AS IT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000785 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL/AE AND INR/AA PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/10/2017 TAGS: PGOV SOCI KWMN PINR KDEM SG SUBJECT: PARLIAMENTARY GENDER PARITY LAW NOT AS GOOD AS IT COULD BE REF: A. 06 DAKAR 2610 ¶B. 06 DAKAR 4748 Classified By: Ambassador Janice L. Jacobs for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) At President Wade's initiative, a new law requires gender parity in the proportional lists -- but not the constituency lists -- of candidates in future legislative elections. Many women consider this a major step forward, but one of the most outspoken, Penda Mbow, calls it a Wade campaign stratagem and distraction from Senegalese women's real issues. She and others think an influx of unsophisticated, rural and perhaps illiterate women will further weaken an already underperforming parliament. Meanwhile, opposition parties still stunned by Wade's re-election suspect Wade designed the parity requirement to sow confusion in their ranks although it will not apply for the June 3 election that many opposition parties have decided to boycott. END SUMMARY. EQUALITY OR CONDESCENSION? -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Using an expedited process and by unanimous vote, the National Assembly on March 27 mandated parity for the 60 seats to be selected by proportional representation in upcoming elections. Opposition Socialist MP Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye introduced an amendment requiring parity for the 90 seats to be elected at district level as well, arguing "there are now 24 women deputies out of 120 and (Wade) is offering 30 out of 150. That is regression and a new form of discrimination." When Wade's ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) rejected her amendment, she promised to challenge the new law for which she apparently voted in court. Her appeal was at least partially successful since the Constitutional Council and the Director of Elections have declared that the new law will not be in effect for the June 3 legislative elections. ¶3. (SBU) The law's passage prompted a biting exchange between two prominent women. Historian Penda Mbow, just returned from Georgetown and preparing to teach at Columbia next year, called the law a distraction from real needs. She called for measures to "liberate women from polygamy, artificial skin whitening, infanticide, pedophilia and every other form of violence." She called Family Minister Aida Mbodj, who spearheaded the legislation for Wade, a "political turncoat who once called Wade all sorts of names but was now behaving as his slave. She pivots all debates on rank, precedence money and honor and doesn't understand intellectual combat." Mbodj, who had shared advocacy of the law with respected women's leader Haoua Dia Thiam, struck back quickly and bluntly: "If Penda Mbow is mad at the President, it's because he was not enchanted by the low caste support she organized to keep herself in power. And I'll refrain, due to modesty and discretion, from commenting on her femininity (condition de femme)." ¶4. (C) Penda Mbow shared with the Ambassador her concerns that the parity law was a politically inspired half-measure that would deflect political action from women's real needs even as it weakened the parliament. Women's needs, and related family and children's needs, she said, were broader and needed to be addressed with more far-reaching social policy. Women's representation in parliament was desirable and necessary. With the National Assembly expanded from the current 120 to 150, though, it is still unlikely women would reach or even approach real parity. Further, while there are some extremely talented women in the parliament, there are also several from villages, unused to operating in a legislative body or even in an urban environment, unaware of key issues, and in some well-known cases illiterate. Real reform would bring greater numbers of fully qualified women MPs devoted to effecting change in the conditions of women and the family. WOMEN OF STATURE OR MACHIAVELLI'S GIRLS? -------------- ¶5. (C) The Socialist-led opposition has few but extremely competent women in parliament and party leadership. Aminata Mbengue is a down-to-earth, no-nonsense woman who worked her way up the party structures while building a loyal following both among Socialist men and working class and poorer women. She has counterparts elsewhere in the national Socialist party structure, such as the country's only regional council president, Kaolack's Mata Sy (Ref B),who is far earthier, none-would-call-sophisticated, but intellectually and politically sharp as a needle. In stylistic contrast, DAKAR 00000785 002 OF 002 Mbengue's main rival for Socialist women's leader, Aissata Tall Sall, is an elegant and polished international lawyer who has long been on many Socialist lists as potential Foreign Minister. ¶6. (C) The PDS, too, has some intriguing and capable women, including, for example, one young woman deputy who at our last encounter was busy working on a doctorate in political science at a Scottish university. In general, though, Wade has appointed women deputies as he has appointed men, because of political, ethnic or religious affiliations rather than because of talent. Aminata MBengue believes Wade designed the new law "to create problems for the party," but that the PDS "will not be spared, since the law will create discontent there as well." Wade's former long-term Labor Minister Yero De, now in opposition, agrees that this was a Wade political ploy: "the Socialists have their well-defined structures built up over years, and replacing men with women now will just create jealousies and resentments. Wade, though, can just name whoever he likes as a PDS candiate." COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Both sides may be overstating the effects of this legislative change. Introducing parity in the proportional list without doing so in the constituency list limits the number of women who can realistically be expected in the next parliament. The Socialists may indeed suffer organizationally in the future, but one of their problems for years has been an inability to identify and promote new talent, and this law may force them to do so to a degree. Since the Socialists and a number of other major opposition parties have decided to boycott the June 3 election, they have five years to adjust. Penda Mbow is right that poor choice of candidates could affect the quality of parliamentary representation, but then there are also numerous male yokels and illiterates in the current parliament. A careful selection of candidates, ideally some with more energetic ideas about increasing parliamentary initiative and working on the most pressing social issues, is what is needed. END COMMENT. ¶8. (U) Visit Embassy Dakar's SIPRNet site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar. JACOBS