PURPORTED PROVISIONAL ELECTORAL LIST DELIVERED TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000576


E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2019
TAGS: PGOV KDEM IV
SUBJECT: PURPORTED PROVISIONAL ELECTORAL LIST DELIVERED TO
PRIME MINISTER

REF: A. ABIDJAN 503

B. ABIDJAN 462

C. ABIDJAN 406

Classified By: Tanya Salseth, Political Officer, for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)


1. (C) On the evening of October 1, SAGEM and the National
Institute for Statistics (INS) presented Prime Minister Soro
with an electronic copy (on USB thumb drives) of what they
claimed was a provisional electoral list. Because President
Laurent Gbagbo was traveling in the west on October 1, an
official ceremony to present him with the list was initially
scheduled for October 5, then later postponed.
Publicly-released statistics on this provisional list have
raised the skepticism of international electoral experts,
however, who question whether the data presented to the PM
can truly be called a provisional electoral list.


2. (SBU) Data released to the public on what the thumb
drives contain was printed in local newspapers on October 2.
The major state-owned daily, Fraternite Matin, reported that
the provisional list submitted to the PM contains the names
of 6,384,816 people whose registration was "validated" by
SAGEM and INS. Of these 6,384,816 people:

- 2,678,069 people were on the 2000 voter's list and should
be directly eligible for an ID card
- 904,858 people are new voters
- 49,408 people are non-ECOWAS foreign nationals
- 2,752,181 people were not found in any of the historical
files
- 330,000 people were removed from the list (duplicate
registrations, for example)

Poloff double-checked these numbers on October 2 with the
United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire's (UNOCI) Electoral
Assistance Division, the only international organization
present when the thumb drives were presented to the PM.
UNOCI reps confirmed these numbers, which they said had been
provided by the Facilitator's Office.


3. (C) However, UNOCI could not independently verify what
information the thumb drives contain. One of UNOCI's senior
electoral assistance division reps, Margaux van de Fliert,
told Poloff that "no one in the international community knows
what is in the electronic copy of the list." UNDP Advisor
Steve Wagenseil agreed, stating that it was doubtful that
names included in the electronic provisional list have been
properly validated. He cited persistent rumors that INS had
not completed its part of the validation process, which
includes running petitioner data (including photos) through
facial-recognition software.


4. (C) Despite skepticism of the provisional list's
validity by international experts, the Independent Electoral
Commission (CEI) is treating the electronic copy as if it is
a viable provisional list and has stated that it intends to
distribute digital copies to all of the political parties.
The CEI will then post the list on the internet for public
consultation at the same time hard copies are being posted in
the country's 11,001 polling stations.


STANLEY