LOCAL ELECTIONS IN MALI: A QUIET DAY AT THE POLLS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000259

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM ML
SUBJECT: LOCAL ELECTIONS IN MALI: A QUIET DAY AT THE POLLS

1.(SBU) Summary: Mali's local elections occurred without
incident on Sunday, April 26, as Malians braved sweltering
heat to select approximately 11,000 municipal level
officials. The U.S. Mission deployed observer teams
throughout Bamako and to the interior cities of Segou, Mopti,
and Timbuktu. With results not expected for at least another
day, moderate to low voter turnout emerged as the main story
line for Malian officials and press outlets even though
participation rates appeared to mirror those of the 2007
presidential and legislative elections. After casting his
own ballot at one of the lightly attended polling stations in
Bamako, President Amadou Toumani Toure linked low
participation rates to overly complicated voter registration
procedures and called for more user friendly, voter
accessible procedures in the future. For Embassy observers
the more interesting theme was the dedication of the tens of
thousands of Malian citizens who volunteered to serve as poll
workers and apply, despite poor training and even poorer
conditions, Malian electoral laws as fairly and accurately as
possible. We will provide a more comprehensive overview of
the election results septel. End Summary.

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A Sunday Election
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2.(SBU) Malians meandered to polls across the country on
Sunday to elect roughly 11,000 local level officials. Unlike
presidential elections where Malians vote for individual
candidates, local and legislative elections are organized
around lists of candidates identified only by a dizzying
array of symbols and logos. As a result, only the most
informed voters know the names of the individuals attached to
the lists for which they are voting. Election winners are
selected based on proportionalities received by each list.
The system's opacity is further compounded by the back room
dealing that occurs after the election, when newly elected
local officials decide amongst themselves who will serve as
mayor or deputy mayor or representative to Mali's several
Regional Assemblies.

3.(SBU) Although most of the monuments, lamp posts, and city
streets in Bamako have been plastered with pamphlets
advertising the symbols and logos of myriad campaign lists,
one could have mistaken election day in Bamako for just
another sleepy, incredibly hot Sunday. Apart from the small
to moderate sized crowds milling around in the heat outside
the public schools designated as polling centers, there were
no discernible signs of an election in progress. Indeed,
many polling places had the unmistakable air of an average
school day - albeit with a heavy police presence although
even that is not so unusual for some of the larger, more
turbulent schools in Bamako - as most of those congregating
around polling stations appeared to be just above the
eligible voting age.

4.(SBU) Nearly all of those commissioned by political
parties as election day poll watchers assigned to individual
polling stations seemed to be high school or university age
kids. Although some of these poll watchers were actively
involved in helping to ensure the transparency of the polling
process on behalf of their parties, most had all the
enthusiasm of students forced to fulfill the mandatory
requirements of a tedious civics class.

5.(SBU) Official poll workers sponsored by the Independent
National Elections Commission appeared somewhat better
trained and more knowledgeable, and the efficiency of
individual polling stations depended on large part on the
organization and leadership skills of the "president" of each
individual polling station. Although our observer teams
encountered sporadic irregularities - ranging from failures
to properly check voter identification or fully reconcile the
number of voters with actual ballots cast - these
irregularities stemmed not from any concerted attempt to
perpetrate fraud but rather inadvertent errors stemming from
training deficiencies or the conspicuous absence of basic
essentials such as electricity, light, and chalk for tallying
results on classroom blackboards.

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Voter Turnout
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6.(SBU) Based on the informal tallies of our observer
teams, turnout in Bamako ranged from a low of 15 percent in
some areas to a high of 35 percent in others. Turnout
appeared to be higher, perhaps reaching 40 percent or more,
in parts of the interior. Our observer team in Segou
reported some polling places with more than 50 percent

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participation rates. Fearing an embarrassingly low turnout,
President Toure declared April 22, the Wednesday before
election day, a national civic holiday to afford citizens the
chance to collect their voter cards from local mayors'
offices. Despite this holiday and public attempts to
encourage voter participation, polling places in Bamako had
stacks and stacks of undistributed voter cards on election
day.

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Comment: Democracy a la Malienne
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7.(SBU) Despite much hand wringing about poor participation
rates, highly unscentific guesstimates by our observer teams
sugget that turnout rates for Sunday's local elections
mirrored those of the 2007 presidential and legisltive
contests. According to Malian government satistics, 36
percent of registered voters particpated in the 2007
presidential elections and 31 percent in the 2007 legislative
elections.

8.(SBU) Our observer teams noted some minor irregularities.
These included failures to properly check voter
identification resulting in the occasional underage voter,
individuals milling around polling places with a few too many
voter cards in their possession, and attempts to take
advantage of a loop hole in the electoral law allowing for
individuals without ID to vote with the assistance of two -
oftentimes professional - witnesses. Many of these incidents
were not the products of systematic or, to borrow from Monday
headlines in a number of Malian newspapers, "massive" fraud
but rather the result of training and material deficiencies.

9.(SBU) In many instances our observers in Bamako and
elsewhere watched as poll workers struggled to help would-be
voters find their names among lists of thousands of extremely
similar, and in many cases, identical names. Even in Bamako,
few of the public schools that doubled as polling places had
electric lighting. Although each individual polling station
received as standard issue a kerosene lantern as part of its
official election administration kit, kerosene was not
included. As night fell and ballot boxes were opened, poll
workers, political party delegations and impartial observers
battled the darkness with privately bought candles or cell
phone flashlights. Given the minimal amount, if any, of
compensation poll workers stand to receive, their dedication
and good-faith efforts under less than optimal circumstances
suggests that the foundation of Malian democracy is much
stronger than Sunday's participation rates imply.
MILOVANOVIC