PRESIDENT TOURE'S BOOSTERS FACE IDENTITY CRISIS AS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAMAKO 000146 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2019 TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM ML SUBJECT: PRESIDENT TOURE'S BOOSTERS FACE IDENTITY CRISIS AS 2012 LOOMS Classified By: Political Officer Fred Noyes, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1.(SBU) Summary: The Malian association Mouvement Citoyen held a "citizens' convention" on January 31 to elect Transportation Minister Ahmed Diane Semega as its new President. Wholly dedicated to supporting the ideas and works of President Amadou Toumani Toure, the Movement was instrumental in President Toure's 2002 and 2007 presidential victories. Results from Mali's 2004 local elections and 2007 legislative elections placed the Movement as the country's third largest political grouping, alongside political party heavyweights Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA) and Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD). With President Toure's second and final term in office rapidly approaching the half-way point, however, the Movement and its new leader are facing an increasingly serious identity crisis as the fan club strives to grapple with life after President Toure. Mali's upcoming April 26 local elections are also yielding signs of rising confusion within the Movement over how, or if, the association can reinvent itself once President Toure's second and final term in office ends in 2012. During a meeting with the Embassy, the Movement's youth leader admitted that the association was internally divided over its future. President Toure and Semega's unusual decision to cancel the Movement's youth convention on February 25 at the last moment, after many convention delegates had already arrived in Bamako, provided further indication that all is not well within the Mouvement Citoyen. End Summary. -------------- The Presidential Fan Club -------------- 2.(SBU) The Movement Citoyen, or Citizens' Movement, was created in 2002 to support President Toure's presidential candidacy. Since the Movement was never registered as political party, President Toure's campaign traded on the claim that he, unlike other candidates, was a man of the people untarnished by party affiliation. Former Minister of Social Development and Solidarity, Djibril Tangara, was the president of the Movement until he was quietly sidelined from the government, and then the Movement itself, following President Toure's reelection in 2007. On January 31, 2009, the association held a "citizens' convention" in Bamako and elected Minister of Transportation Ahmed Diane Semega as the �00A;organization's new president. Semega previously served as vice-president of the Movement under Tangara, was Minister of Energy and Mines from 2002 to 2007, and is widely regarded as one of President Toure's close confidants. 3.(SBU) The citizens' convention provided fertile ground for recurring rumors that the Movement will soon be transformed into a political party, perhaps in recognition of criticism that the association's political activities are inconsistent with its non-political party status. The convention also served as a platform for Movement youth wing leader Amadou Koita, who delivered a speech that openly criticized the Malian government's failed attempt to regulate rising rice prices and then publicly turned down an offer to join the Movement's executive bureau. Throughout the rest of the convention, Semega and the Movement's senior leadership systematically shot down rumors of the association's impending transformation into a full-fledged political party, stating that the Movement would remain a citizens' association dedicated to supporting the works and ideas of President Toure. However, since the Malian constitution bars President Toure from running for president again in 2012, puzzlement over the Movement's status and role is rapidly increasing as the organization moves closer and closer toward losing its raison d'etre. -------------- Preparing for Communal Elections -------------- 4.(SBU) Confusion over the Movement's political status will likely be on public display during the run up to Mali's upcoming communal elections scheduled for April 26. In meetings with the Embassy on February 13 and March 3, youth wing leader Amadou Koita indicated that the Movement is prepared to field candidates in at least 500 of Mali's 703 communes. During Mali's last local elections in 2004, the Movement won 2,300 of Mali's 11,000 local councilor posts - a result which placed the Movement alongside Mali's strongest political parties. During the 2007 legislative elections, the Movement won 17 of the National Assembly's 147 seats, becoming the third largest political grouping within the Assembly after ADEMA and URD. The Movement currently boasts three Cabinet Ministers in President Toure's government. Only ADEMA has more Ministers, with five. BAMAKO 00000146 002 OF 003 5.(SBU) Because the Movement is a a fan club rather than a political party, association members seeking to run for local office must register as independent candidates, meaning that the Movement's logo cannot appear on election day ballots or campaign materials. Although this may disadvantage some Movement candidates on election day, the association's sizable financial resources and name recognition more than make up for the missing Movement logo. -------------- Youth Convention Canceled -------------- 6.(C) According to Koita, the Movement's youth wing intended to hold its own youth convention on February 7. The date was later reset for February 28 to allow President Toure to attend. However, on February 25, an emissary of President Toure told Koita that the youth convention was indefinitely postponed. An official messenger from the presidency confirmed this decision to Koita one day later. Since youth delegates from 33 of Mali's 49 administrative circles, as well as representative from Movement groups in Senegal and France, had already arrived in Bamako, this decision put Koita, as the convention's organizer, in a rather uncomfortable position. 7.(C) Koita told the Embassy that senior Movement leaders provided three reasons for the cancellation: 1) the convention was over budget; 2) not all pro-President Toure associations were represented; and 3) security concerns. Unable to obtain any additional explanation or justifications, Koita concluded that these rationales were pretexts intended to conceal political reasons for the youth convention's cancellation. Koita was less certain of what these political reasons might be but speculated that Minister Semega may feel threatened by Koita's popularity among youth activists. Evidently short on humility, Koita repeatedly compared himself to President Barack Obama during our discussion and announced that he has presidential ambitions of his own following the end of President Toure's second and final term in 2012. 8.(C) Worried that his fellow youth members would see through the flimsy rationale for the convention's cancellation, Koita told the Embassy he was forced to invent a pretext of his own, attributing the cancellation to the sudden hospitalization of an important Movement supporter. Koita said he hoped to speak with President Toure soon to set a new date for the youth league convention, but admitted that the convention may not occur until after the April communal elections. 9.(U) On March 2, a local newspaper speculated that the youth convention's cancellation was an attempt by Movement leadership to scuttle the youth wing in retaliation for Koita's antics during the January citizens' convention. -------------- Ignoring the Inevitable -------------- 10.(SBU) The Citizens' Movement may be the only political grouping in Mali not looking eagerly toward 2012 and Mali's next presidential election. This is rather remarkable given the number of local and national level elected officials who belong to the Movement. With no clear post-President Toure game plan and a cult-of-personality type platform that is likely not transferable to another presidential candidate, die-hard Movement members seem to studiously avoid questions about the association's future. 11.(SBU) Despite the Movement's apolitical status, internal dissent and contradictions have sparked several political spin-offs. One of these spin-offs is a micro-party, the Citizen and Democratic Force (FDC),created by former Movement president Tangara after he found himself at odds with other association leaders and President Toure over whether the Movement should convert to a political party. Other micro-parties composed of disillusioned, ex-members are the Citizen Party for Renewal (PCR) and new Union of Patriots for the Republic (UPR). For his part, Koita said the Movement could become a political party in 2012, but that there was no current pressure to transform into a party. Koita said the association will probably field a presidential candidate of its own in 2012, then returned to his self-comparison to President Obama. -------------- Comment: Prognosis Negative -------------- 12.(C) In 2002 support from the Citizens' Movement enabled BAMAKO 00000146 003 OF 003 President Toure to portray himself as above the fray of party politics, as an independent representative of the people as opposed to a representative of a particular political faction. In 2007 President Toure retained his independent rhetoric, but welcomed the endorsement of Mali's major political parties. This was in large part a marriage of convenience as it compromised his independent message but also ensured that major political rivals - ADEMA and the URD - would keep their own formidable presidential candidates waiting in the wings until 2012. This strategy helped President Toure secure an easy first round re-election with 70 percent of the vote. It also put the first serious crack in the Citizens' Movement veneer. As President Toure's second and final term approaches its half-way point, the Citizens' Movement's reason for being is fizzling away. With its political platform hitched to the political fortunes of one man, internal dissent over how the Movement should reinvent itself has the potential to tear the Movement apart. Amadou Koita's self-delusions may be a symptom of this internal malaise, and the apparently political attempt to undermine him from above reinforces suspicions that Koita is not the only person with presidential ambitions capable of pushing the Movement to the breaking point. Minister of Transport and new Movement president Ahmed Diane Semega is one senior leader rumored to be eyeing an eventual presidential bid. The Movement, however, is not dedicated to the ideas and works of Semega, and with President Toure seemingly the only force holding the Movement together, the post-Toure prognosis isn't good. MILOVANOVIC