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