FREE TO BE: OPPOSITION LAMBASTS GOVERNMENT AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BAMAKO 000073 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM ML SUBJECT: FREE TO BE: OPPOSITION LAMBASTS GOVERNMENT AND MOURNS DEMOCRACY IN MALI REF: 07 BAMAKO 00275 Classified By: Political Officer Fred Noyes, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1.(C) Summary: During a February 2 meeting with the Embassy, leaders of Mali's two main opposition parties, the Rally for Mali (RPM) and Party for National Renewal (PARENA),provided extraordinarily pessimistic views of upcoming municipal elections and the near future of Malian democracy. Although both the RPM and PARENA will contest the local elections, neither expects to fare well, citing a long list of what RPM and PARENA officials characterize as anti-democratic actions taken by the Malian government to manipulate the electoral process. After rehashing why they believe the 2002 and 2007 presidential elections were neither free nor fair, RPM and PARENA leaders said they had little hope that local elections scheduled for April 26 would meet their criteria for transparency and fairness. It is clearly in the interests of RPM and PARENA to portray Malian democracy as more troubled that it actually is and opposition leaders seem generally oblivious to the irony that their evident right to freely accuse the Malian government of a full range of misdeeds without serious fear of retribution is rooted in Mali's democratic success. However, certain aspects of their criticism - particularly regarding the political independence of the institutions charged with administering elections and Mali's allegedly flawed electoral rolls - are valid concerns. End Summary. -------------- RPM: How Our Party Saved Mali -------------- 2.(SBU) On February 2 the Embassy met with Bocar Treta, General Secretary of the RPM, and other party officials. Although RPM's president and founder, former National Assembly president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK),was not present, his specter loomed large throughout our discussion as Treta carefully rehashed the genesis of the RPM and political trajectory of IBK. Formerly Prime Minister for Mali's first democratically elected President and Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA) co-founder, Alpha Oumar Konare, IBK broke away from both Konare and ADEMA in 2001 to create the RPM in advance of the 2002 presidential elections. According to Treta, IBK left ADEMA at the height of the party's power, and took with him the cream of ADEMA's leadership. Treta said the motivation for the break was a gradual realization on the part of IBK and his supporters that ADEMA was straying from the ideals of the 1991 democratic revolution. 3.(SBU) Treta attributed the peace and stability of today's Mali solely to the personal character of IBK. Specifically, Treta alleged that the 2002 and 2007 elections which brought President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT) to power were stolen, but that, "unlike Al Gore," IBK chose not to challenge the fraud. Instead, Treta stressed that IBK had chosen to accept the results of the elections, and has since cooperated in good faith with the government. Had the situation been reversed, Treta stressed, and had the RPM been accused of manipulating the election results, Mali would today be "on fire and in flames." IBK narrowly missed the second round of presidential voting in 2002, perhaps due to the disqualification of nearly 25 percent of the ballots cast during the first round. In 2007 IBK garnered 19 percent of the presidential vote as ATT cruised to first round victory with more than 70 percent of ballots cast. Treta claimed that Mali remained peaceful due only to IBK and the RPM's reluctance to openly challenge the irregularities in Mali's recent elections. 4.(SBU) When asked what distinguished RPM from other political parties, both those in the opposition and those aligned with ATT, Treta replied that only RPM could restore "vigor" to Malian democracy. He referenced RPM's extensive relations with foreign governments and cited as an example of RPM's international standing the recent trip of IBK to see the inauguration of President Obama. Treta asserted that IBK had been formally invited, alone among Malian politicians. (Comment: IBK first told the Embassy that he wanted to meet then Senator Obama in 2006. Rumors that ATT's invite and travel to the presidential inauguration were arranged by the National Democratic Institute (NDI),which did pay for IBK to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008, were dispelled by the local NDI representative in Bamako. We have no other information regarding IBK's apparent inauguration attendance. End Comment.) 5.(SBU) More substantively, Treta argued that RPM was distinguished from the government and other opposition BAMAKO 00000073 002 OF 004 parties by its conception of the state. RPM, according to Treta, sees the state as an instrument for the people, to be guided by but not fused with the majority political party. Treta stated bluntly that ATT was not a democrat, and that ATT had co-opted the institutions of the state to maintain his hold on power. Thus, he said of the 2007 election, there had never been question of whether ATT would be re-elected, because state appointed governors, prefects, and sous-prefects had instructed local authorities to make it so. -------------- Voter Lists and Election Administration -------------- 6.(SBU) Treta confirmed that RPM will contest the upcoming municipal elections, whether or not the elections are ultimately delayed. However, Treta stated that the RPM does not expect to get "extraordinary" results due, in large part, to flawed voter registration rolls and the lack of money to support public campaign financing. Treta said the elections would not be credible, regardless of the results, and alleged that the Malian government had manipulated voter registration rolls, and that the nominally independent organizations intended to monitor the elections were politically controlled. Treta noted that the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI),which is supposed to be independent of political influence, is now headed by a senior member of ADEMA who is also ATT's former Minister of Agriculture. "The government runs the elections," said Treta, "they can cheat if they want to." 7.(SBU) The RPM sees greater hope for the Presidential elections in 2012. Despite a poor showing in the 2007 elections, RPM leadership believes IBK remains one of the most popular individual politicians in Mali. Treta argued that since ATT is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term (although he suggested ATT might try to find a way around this limitation),ATT's political alliance, led by ADEMA and the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), will fracture. Treta said he expects both ADEMA and the URD to field presidential candidates in 2012 - something neither party did in 2007, having both decided to endorse ATT for re-election - thereby splitting their support and opening a path through which Keita and the RPM could pass. 8.(SBU) As the RPM often does, Treta and other RPM officials asked the U.S. to support Malian opposition parties. Paradoxically, Treta also asked the U.S. to help Mali resist perceived "foreign," and specifically French, interference in Malian politics. Treta quoted former French President Chirac as supposedly supporting ATT because he was a weak personality and therefore easy to manipulate - an allegation first raised in a controversial, and anonymous, book about ATT published in 2006. Treta further worried that foreign multinational companies had too much influence on policies articulated by the Government of Mali. -------------- PARENA: The Agony of Defeat -------------- 9.(SBU) PARENA's founder and two-time presidential also-ran, Tiebile Drame, went one step further during a separate February 2 meeting with the Embassy, accusing the U.S. of being complicit in what Drame described as Mali's unfair 2007 presidential and legislative elections. Drame finished a very distant third in the presidential race of 2007, garnering only 3 percent of the vote. Drame told the Embassy that Mali had a good reputation abroad, and that the opposition parties wanted to do what was necessary to preserve this reputation as it serves as a capital asset vital to Mali's future economic development. However, Drame complained of a disconnect between Mali's image abroad and the reality of Malian democracy on the ground. He said the 2007 elections were the most fraudulent in Mali's history, and that current government institutions were therefore illegitimate as they were based on this fraud. 10.(SBU) Drame revisited many of the fraud claims articulated by opposition leaders during the 2007 election: alleged government manipulation of voter registration rolls enabling many supporters of ATT to vote more than once; the government's decision to give the presidential ballot printing contract to a firm run by an ATT supporter; opposition claims of numerous ballots pre-marked for ATT days before election day (Drame said he saw some of these supposed pre-marked ballots first hand); massive ballot stuffing; and supposed fixing of the final vote count which Drame alleged originally tallied 108 percent of the total number of voters. BAMAKO 00000073 003 OF 004 11.(SBU) Drame was extremely critical of the United States, and particularly the State Department, because of our characterization of past Malian elections as "generally" free and fair. After listing various examples of electoral fraud, Drame asked how the U.S. and other international observers could have classified Mali's 2007 presidential election as free and fair. He then complained of an American double standard, and charged that the United States did not believe that Malians deserved real democracy. "If you tell me," said Drame, "that the United States supports democracy throughout the world, I will laugh." 12.(SBU) After chastising the United States' failure to rush to his defense following his resounding defeat during the 2007 presidential election, Drame complained that the General Election Delegation (DGE) was controlled, not by a civilian, but by a Colonel from the Malian military (Col. Siaka Sangare) who Drame alleged was close to ATT. Drame emphasized repeatedly that "even (the Colonel) admits" that the voter registration rolls are a mess and said Col. Sangare had recently warned that given the current status of the voter rolls, holding election today in free and fair conditions would be impossible and could very well create tensions. Asked about recent suggestions that the municipal elections be delayed, Drame stated that the beneficiaries of such a delay would be those who were holding onto power through fraud. When asked if a delay of six months might enable the voter rolls to be fixed and a fair election held, Drame dismissed the idea. Free and fair elections, he stated, are a matter of political will, not a matter of time, and the current Malian government simply did not desire to hold free and fair elections. 13.(SBU) Drame also expressed concern over Mali's growing budget deficit, and warned that it was reaching a critical stage. Interestingly, Drame attributed the budgetary woes to tax exemptions given by the government to political allies, which Drame alleged was the cause of a dramatic drop in government revenues. 14.(SBU) Regarding another interest of Drame's, the conflict in northern Mali, Drame compared unrest in the north to the conflict in Darfur. He complained of Mali's decision to use irregular militias to fight Tuareg rebels in the north and registered a rather odd complaint about the United State's decision to condemn genocide in Sudan but not in northern Mali. Drame then accused the Malian government of letting northern Mali turn into a haven for hostage takers, implying that were he in charge, northern Mali would be a much more stable and secure place. 15.(SBU) Despite having no apparent faith in Malian democracy, Drame was adamant that PARENA would take part in the upcoming municipal elections, stating "we are not a party that boycotts" elections. When asked if he believed the presidential elections in 2012 would be free and fair, Drame demurred, stating that in Mali, three years was too long a period of time to make predictions. -------------- Comment: The Irony of it All -------------- 16.(C) Allegations of electoral fraud form a common theme for local opposition leaders. We reported extensively on the recycled complaints articulated by Drame during the 2007 presidential and legislative electoral campaigns. It is clearly within the RPM and PARENA's interest to exaggerate perceived deficiencies of Malian democracy. Their over-the-top rhetoric and accusations of rampant electoral fraud, however, should not obscure two valid points of concern: Mali's flawed voter rolls and the political independence of the institutions responsible for administering Malian elections. 17.(C) The number of eligible voters in Mali increased by nearly 20 percent, from 5.7 million voters eligible for the presidential elections in 2002 to 6.8 million voters in 2007 (Ref. A). The office that controls Mali's eligible voters database is with the General Election Delegation (DGE),which reports to the Ministry of Territorial Administration. An official with the French government's development agency who is assigned to work with the Ministry of Territorial Administration recently told the Embassy that this database was completely controlled by Malian military personnel who, in this official's opinion, exhibited dubious ability to manage computer databases. Malian officials have admitted to the Embassy that Mali's electoral database is managed primarily by military personnel but have gone on to say that these military members have received specific training on database management and therefore cannot be replaced by BAMAKO 00000073 004 OF 004 civilian counterparts. 18.(C) Military control of Mali's electoral database is not surprising, given that the DGE itself is headed by Col. Siaka Sangare. Col. Sangare and the DGE report directly to the Ministry of Territorial Administration which is lead by another military officer, General Kafougouna Kone. A third military officer, Col. Youssouf Traore, chaired preliminary meetings of Mali's CENI in September 2008 until Mali selected former Minister of Agriculture and ADEMA official Seydou Traore as CENI president for the 2009 local elections. 19.(C) One ironic point apparently lost on Treta and Drame is their evident freedom to peddle serious, and often misleading, criticism of President Toure and the Malian government. Were the RPM's and PARENA's absurd comparisons to Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sudan actually accurate, Treta and Drame would likely not be articulating these allegations from the comfort of their party offices in Bamako. Unfortunately, Treta and Drame seem to derive little solace from the observation that their continued ability to freely accuse the government means that something about Malian democracy must be right. MILOVANOVIC