CAPE VERDEAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

UNCLAS PRAIA 000283 E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOC PREL PT CV SUBJECT: CAPE VERDEAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES VOTE OF CONFIDENCE ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The Cape Verdean Parliament passed a motion of confidence by a margin of 41 to 25, supported by votes exclusively from the governing African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). The two opposition parties, Movement for Democracy (MpD) and Cape Verdean Independent and Democratic Union (UCID),voted against the motion. Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves submitted the confidence motion after MpD President, Jorge Santos accused the Prime Minister of allowing increased opportunities for money laundering through loopholes in legislation on offshore banking and a lack of transparency in public tender bidding on government projects. The loss was unsurprising, given the PAICV's majority in Parliament, but it might have further weakened the MpD, turning what they had hoped would be an embarrassing attack on the PAICV into a defeat for the MpD itself. End Summary. ¶2. (U) On December 5, 2008, the government submitted a confidence motion after being accused by opposition leader Jorge Santos of allowing, and even encouraging, money laundering activities. Santos also accused the government of involvement in an embezzlement scandal with the Portuguese firm Sociedade Lusa Negocios (SLN),poor financial management of Cape Verde's National airline TACV, and lack of transparency in bidding on government contracts. Reacting to Santos' accusations, Prime Minister Neves said that the seriousness of these accusations necessitated either a motion of no-confidence by the MPD - condemning the government and confirming the corruption accusations - or a motion of confidence to confirm the parliament's support of the government. ¶3. (SBU) While the opposition insisted the accusations had merit, they failed during a fiery floor debate to present any real proof to back them up. For its part, the ruling PAICV party denied all accusations and stated that it had long ago intervened to fix those problems and correct any appearances of impropriety. ¶4. (SBU) Given the MpD's failure to prove its case or persuade the majority of Parliament, the government then counterattacked, submitting a motion of confidence, which was promptly approved by all of PAICV's 41 representatives in the National Assembly. The two legislators representing splinter party UCID and the 23 MpD members present voted against the motion. (Six other members of Parliament were absent). ¶5. (SBU) The MpD criticized PAICV's motion, calling it a tacit admission that trust in the government had been broken; otherwise, it would not have been necessary to reconfirm the confidence of its own parliamentary party members. UCID members, on the other hand, said they voted against the motion because they saw no need for it in the first place. ¶6. (SBU) Comment. Under a system that requires a simple-majority approval, the motion of confidence vote by a party holding 41 of 72 parliamentary seats garnered no surprises. Instead, it came across as a purely political act, serving to reconfirm the PAICV's majority and the MPD's minority. For most outside observers, the session was only an opportunity to watch the governing party exercise the power of its democratic majority. As for the opposition, this episode is another example of accusations - perhaps valid, perhaps not - being made with no proof to back them up. With the spring 2008 election of former MpD parliamentarian Ulysses Correia e Silva as mayor of Praia, the MpD parliamentary bloc lost one of its most persuasive debaters. Since then, the party has not found a new strong voice to take his place in debates on the parliamentary floor. End comment. DUNN