DISPUTE OVER PROVISIONAL ELECTORAL LIST RESOLVED

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000666 E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM SOCI IV SUBJECT: DISPUTE OVER PROVISIONAL ELECTORAL LIST RESOLVED REF: A) ABIDJAN 664 B) ABIDJAN 640 Classified By: Ambassador Wanda Nesbitt for Reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The three main political parties (the FPI, RDR, and PDCI) have apparently resolved their dispute, allowing publication of the provisional electoral list to move forward. An agreement to downplay nationality questions and deal "administratively" with the one million registrants who remain unverified, and a desire to hold elections sooner rather than later were the key factors that helped the parties overcome their impasse. The preliminary list should be published by week's end. End Summary ¶2. (C) Ambassador learned from November 9 conversations with several of the key players that all of the main political parties have now agreed to publication of a provisional list in two parts. The first part will consist of the 5.3 million voters verified by the independent electoral commission (CEI); the second part will contain the names of just over one million who require further verification. SRSG Choi believes that the RDR and PDCI backed away from their insistence on a single, integrated list once it became clear that arriving at a single list would delay the election until next fall. Most critical, however, is a commitment made by the CEI (which CEI President Mambe confirmed) not to infer in any way that the one million are not Ivorian. Mambe told Ambassador that the CEI has agreed to treat these cases as ones in which an error may have been made. Individuals who choose may supply additional information to help the CEI clarify their status. Mambe said he would give a press conference this week to explain to the public how the one million will be handled. RDR leader Amadou Gon Coulibaly told Ambassador that the key difference from their perspective is that no one from among the one million will be required to present additional proof of citizenship - it will be a voluntary process. This obviously leaves the door open for those who do not come forward now to do so at a later date. ¶3. (C) Koffi Koffi Paul, who coordinates election preparations for the Prime Minister, provided additional insight saying that some political party leaders had not fully appreciated the logistics of working from a single list. Koffi Paul said that they accepted the PM's recommendation to go with a bifurcated list once they understood that this would actually speed up the process by making it easier for CEI committees in the field to focus on unresolved cases. He noted that Soro, currently on a trip to Egypt, would stop in Ouagadougou on his way back. He will presumably get the Facilitator's concurrence. ¶4. (C) Comment: The Ivorians have a found a practical and largely positive solution to the impasse over the electoral list. Some of the one million will undoubtedly be added to the final list. Leaving the door open for the remainder to have their nationality validated seems sensible although it promises another fight over nationality sometime in the future. As noted in ref B, one of the reasons behind the delay in publication was the need to produce a list containing more names than the 2000 electoral list. We suspect that once the CEI list exceeded 5 million, pressure to publish the list became intense. Advisors to Gbagbo have been actively involved in pushing for a rapid solution, suggesting that the president's interest in having elections as soon as possible is genuine. If the provisional list is indeed published this week, Cote d'Ivoire will have taken another major step forward towards resolving its 7 year old crisis. NESBITT