CRITICISM AND APATHY DEFINE PRE-ELECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000337 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM AG SUBJECT: CRITICISM AND APATHY DEFINE PRE-ELECTION ATMOSPHERICS REF: A. ALGIERS 279 ¶B. ALGIERS 252 ¶C. ALGIERS 226 ALGIERS 00000337 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b and d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: On the eve of Algeria's presidential election, a mood of general apathy and cynicism has descended upon the capital, despite the government's best efforts to stimulate voter turnout on April 9. These efforts have consisted largely of an overwhelming Bouteflika propaganda machine, with posters, billboards, cultural events, rallies, television specials and even a temporary museum exhibit in downtown Algiers on Bouteflika's life and role in Algerian history. For half the day on April 6, Algerian internet users seeking to use google's search engine were automatically redirected to the official Bouteflika campaign website, bouteflika2009.com. The vast discrepancy in resources has caused several candidates to file formal complaints with an unresponsive and unsympathetic national electoral commission. They suggest among other things that the campaign has violated the spirit of Article 178 of Ordnance 97-07 (March 6, 1997),which guarantees public spaces will be allocated equally among all candidates. Opposition party leaders have become increasingly vocal in the week prior to the elections, even creating a stir by flying a black flag over party headquarters. They view April 9 as a "day of mourning" for Algerian democracy. END SUMMARY. NO SHOULDER TO CRY ON -------------- ¶2. (C) One might be forgiven for thinking that only one candidate will be on the ballot April 9. Since the start of the official campaign period on March 19, Bouteflika banners, posters and campaign paraphernalia have dominated public spaces throughout Algeria. Some of the posters cover the sides of multistory buildings. One wag remarked that if you stand in one place too long, someone might tack a Bouteflika poster on your back. Bouteflika's aggressive media campaign has steamrolled the efforts of his competitors. In Algiers, official spaces allocated for the campaign materials of each of the six candidates typically display six different posters of Bouteflika. Posters of the remaining five candidates are rare. This trend seems to apply outside the capital as well. During travel to the southern cities of Tamanrasset and Djanet, we observed the incumbent's reelection machine in action as wilaya administrators organized political rallies and poster campaigns every bit as sophisticated as events in Algiers, albeit with a touch of local culture. A pro-Bouteflika rally led by Abdelaziz Belkhadem in Tamanrasset on March 25 featured Tuaregs in full costume parading camels adorned with FLN placards and Bouteflika gear through town square. ¶3. (C) Rachid Louari, a representative of Party for Liberty and Justice (PLJ) candidate Mohamed Said, described the poster campaign as "anarchy" on March 30. Said's campaign also complained that it received no state news coverage during the first week of campaign activities. Islah party representative Abdesslem Kessal griped publicly that television and radio coverage overwhelmingly favored the incumbent, leaving little air time for the remaining candidates. Other complaints implicate local government officials who candidates allege have been mobilized to support Bouteflika. Workers' Party (PT) candidate Louisa Hanoune noted that candidates often wait for hours while roads and transport routes are closed during President Bouteflika's frequent campaign stops. Mohamed Said's campaign manager Mohamed Cherif Taleb said authorities did nothing when a PLJ campaign bus was attacked in the Algiers suburb of Bab El Oued on March 19. For his part, Ahd 54 candidate Fouzi Rebaine said his campaign had yet to receive its government stipend of 15 million dinars (USD 208,000) from the Ministry of Interior, while press estimates suggest that Bouteflika will spend more than USD 69 million on his campaign drive. WHITE FLAG -------------- ¶4. (C) Three of the candidates set to oppose Bouteflika on Thursday have filed written complaints with the National ALGIERS 00000337 002.2 OF 002 Commission for the Surveillance of the Presidential Elections (CNSEP),a commission established by presidential decree to monitor complaints and ensure compliance with Algeria's electoral laws. Official candidates as well as legally registered political parties have the right to appoint one representative to the CNSEP, which also includes a small, six-person secretariat. However, Mohamed Teguia, the CNSEP chairman appointed by Bouteflika, has been unsympathetic in addressing the candidates' concerns. Mohamed Sediki, a member of Rebaine's Ahd 54, said most CNSEP members are more concerned with getting their per diem than objectively investigating complaints. Islah candidate Djahid Younsi quipped in a March 30 press interview that the CNSEP has become another outlet of support for Bouteflika. In an interview with Arabic-language daily El Khabar on April 1, Teguia scoffed at the candidates' complaints and said they were simply looking for "excuses" to withdraw from the race, something they had threatened to do on the front pages of the newspapers on March 30. BLACK FLAG -------------- ¶5. (C) The opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and Socialist Forces Front (FFS) have raised the profile of their anti-election boycott campaign in separate protests organized in the first week of April. FFS organizers rallied thousands of protesters in the Berber provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia on April 2 to march in favor of an election boycott. An embassy officer traveling in Bejaia said approximately 500 young men in their 20s and 30s marched down the city's two main avenues waving red cards and chanting anti-government slogans. Riot police were present but did not intervene. The RCD hoisted a black flag above its party headquarters in Algiers on April 4 to symbolize what RCD President Said Sadi called "a day of mourning on April 9." Sadi's move drew harsh criticism from nationalist, pro-government institutions like the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) and from Prime Minister Ouyahia, who called Sadi a traitor. Breaking the RCD's self-imposed silence since January, Sadi said "never has there been an election campaign so deprived of ethics." As to Ouyahia's comments, Sadi replied, "Traitor? I have been to prison for my convictions. Does Ouyahia know what the word conviction means?" Appearing to draw on the rhetoric used in the Ouyahia-Sadi battle, FFS leader Karim Tabbou said in an April 6 statement that a vote on April 9 would be tantamount to "an act of treason." ¶6. (C) COMMENT: Despite the flurry of complaints from candidates and public outbursts orchestrated by the RCD and FFS, the feeling on the street here is that most Algerians are not paying attention -- and the government is clearly concerned. For much of the afternoon and evening of April 6 (the last official day of campaigning),Algerians loading google.com on their internet browsers were automatically redirected to Bouteflika's official campaign website, bouteflika2009.com. Youcef Hannou, a member of the youth NGO Le Souk, told us on April 5 that despite government efforts to encourage young Algerians to participate in the April 9 election, most of his peers will stay at home. "Personally, it's not something we're thinking about," he said. Asked what average Algerians think of the election process, human rights lawyer Amine Sidhoum said simply, "Nothing." None of our contacts at an April 5 reception for civil society were upbeat about the pre-election process or the prospects for a high voter turnout on election day, believing the result to be a foregone conclusion and the process one that has little to do with them. If their skepticism is an accurate barometer of opinion on the Algerian street, the story of April 9 will be about how far the government is willing to go in order to create what they consider to be a credible showing of voter enthusiasm. PEARCE