PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR CALM, SETS UP OBSERVATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000015

SIPDIS
AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PASS TO AMEMBASSY MALABO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/13
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IV
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR CALM, SETS UP OBSERVATION
COMMITTEES

REF: 10 ABIDJAN 13

CLASSIFIED BY: Tanya Salseth, Political Officer, DoS; REASON: 1.4(B),
(D)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On January 12, Prime Minister Guillaume
Soro publicly declared that the current Independent Electoral
Commission (CEI) scandal has not jeopardized the integrity of the
voters' list. However, to ensure that there are no doubts about
the integrity of the list, the four other technical structures
involved in the identification and voter registration process
(SAGEM, ONI, INS, CNSI) have been instructed by the PM's office to
send representatives to 70 observation committees that will oversee
the adding and subtracting of names from the provisional list. END
SUMMARY




2. (SBU) On January 12, Prime Minister Soro held a meeting
with all of the technical structures involved in the identification
and voter registration process (SAGEM, ONI, INS, CNSI, CEI) to
discuss the way forward following allegations of fraud on the part
of CEI President Robert Mambe (reftel). SRSG Choi, OPA Facilitator
Boureima Badini, and the press were also present. The PM called
for calm and explained that although the CEI had acted on its own
accord in running additional name checks on the provisional voters'
list, the 429,000 names in question had not been added to nor
subtracted from the initial list of 1.033 million "unverified"
names. PM Soro reaffirmed that the provisional voters' list, which
contains some 5.3 million names in total, had not been permanently
altered. In order to allay concerns over the integrity of the
list, Soro also said his office is instructing all five technical
structures involved in the electoral process to each send one
representative to 70 local observation committees, which will be
set up in the coordination centers. These new five-person
observation committees will monitor the modification of the
provisional voters' list - a step that had initially been the sole
responsibility of the CEI.




3. (C) Poloff spoke with SAGEM's head representative Fabien
Rouaud on January 12. He confirmed that SAGEM had already deployed
its 70 agents to the field to monitor the "scrubbing" of the
provisional voters' list, and SAGEM was the first and only
structure to have its agents already in place. Rouaud also told
Poloff that it would be "impossible" for the CEI to tamper with the
database used to produce the provisional list, as only SAGEM has
access to it. The CEI was using an electronic copy of information
generated from the SAGEM database and not the database itself. The
initial SAGEM contract stipulated that the CEI would make the
necessary changes to this electronic copy and then return the copy
to SAGEM to produce the final voters' list. Rouaud said that, due
to the recent allegations of fraud, the "scrubbing" of the list
will now be done under the oversight of the 70 observation
committees. SAGEM will be responsible for inputting and deleting
names from the list.




4. (C) COMMENT: Although the PM's remarks might reassure
Ivoirians that the voters' list has not been compromised, they may
not be enough to placate President's Gbagbo's party, which appears
incensed over the CEI's recent actions. For example, Poloff heard
from UN sources that Gbagbo is considering raising this issue with
the Permanent Consultative Framework. Many longtime observers of
the electoral process believe that the FPI's overreaction is yet
another tactic to stall elections. (Indeed, SRSG Choi told
Ambassador last week that Gbagbo is no longer confident of winning;
Mambe's actions come at a particularly opportune time.) That said,
the PM reiterated that the period for filing challenges to the
provisional electoral list officially ended on January 9. There is
some question about whether this will hold, as Gbagbo has been
actively pushing to extend the cutoff date. It also remains to be
seen how much more the set-up of these new observation committees
will delay the printing of the final voters' list, and with it, the
presidential election. END COMMENT
NESBITT