Dispute Process Extended; CEI Commissioners Protest

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 000057

SIPDIS
AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PASS TO AMEMBASSY MALABO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/08
TAGS: PGOV KDEM IV
SUBJECT: Dispute Process Extended; CEI Commissioners Protest

REF: 10 ABIDJAN 15

CLASSIFIED BY: Tanya Salseth, Political Officer, Department of State,
Embassy Abidjan; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (U) Summary: After weeks of speculation, the Prime
Minister's Office and the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI)
announced on February 2 that the period for filing challenges to
the provisional electoral list will be reopened from February 4
through 14. The day after the announcement was made, 10 of the 31
central CEI commissioners signed a joint declaration stating they
would "abstain" from fulfilling their duties during the reopened
process. They stated they would not cooperate with the prime
minister's observation committees and urged all CEI commissioners
to follow their example. Meanwhile a set of disturbing incidents,
including protests in Divo, Katiola, and Man, and a break-in into a
CEI office in Abidjan, seem to signal a general sense of uneasiness
about the electoral process. End Summary



DISPUTE PROCESS RE-OPENED, BUT COMMISSIONERS WON'T WORK


2. (C) The dispute process, which officially came to an end
on January 9, will be reopened from February 4 through 14,
according to a February 2 CEI announcement. Ten central CEI
commissioners (most of whom are thought to be pro-FPI) reacted to
this news by issuing a joint declaration on February 3, stating
they would not assist with the dispute process, nor cooperate with
the observation committees set up by the Prime Minister's office
(ref A). The commissioners cited "increasing administrative and
procedural anomalies" on the part of CEI President Mambe as the
reason for their decision and stated that they would "abstain" from
working until the fraud scandal is cleared up. Alain Dogou, one of
the CEIs four vice-presidents and President Gbagbo's representative
at the CEI, told Emboffs on February 5 that Mambe has lost support
among the commissioners, as many continue to question what role he
played in the scandal. Dogou said this loss of confidence has
weakened the leadership of the CEI, citing the example of one
central commissioner who, without Mambe's permission, asked all of
the regional CEI commissioners reporting to him to close their
offices following the February 3 declaration.



DISTURBING INCIDENTS MULTIPLY


3. (SBU) While the CEI is wracked by internal divisions,
disturbances in the electoral landscape seem to be on the rise.
Demonstrators in Divo, a southern city not far from Abidjan which
saw considerable electoral violence during the 2000 elections,
clashed with police on February 1. The incident began after police
arrested and detained three people after members of the ruling FPI
party claimed they were foreigners who had fraudulently registered
themselves on the provisional electoral list. Two police officers
were injured in the clash; seven demonstrators suffered from
bullet-related injuries.



The following day (February 2),the town hall responsible for
administrative documents in the northern city of Katiola repeatedly
refused authorized requests to examine the town's birth registry in
an attempt to verify the nationality of some petitioners who were
accused of being foreign. As a result, youth from the opposition
RHDP coalition protested, destroying property in the process.



That same day, newspapers reported that three opposition RDR
members working at a CEI in the Attecoube neighborhood of Abidjan
broke into the CEI office and took 19 boxes of petitioner cases
under dispute. The RDR members claimed the break-in was necessary
because the FPI head of office had locked up the documents and
refused to transfer them to the observation committees in
compliance with the prime minister's instructions.



The embassy received an unconfirmed report from an NGO implementing
a U.S. grant that today (February 5) pro-ruling party demonstrators
are protesting in the western city of Man and are blocking CEI
operations from taking place.




4. (C) Comment: This latest declaration by the ten CEI
commissioners is disturbing on several levels. Although it is no
secret that the president's camp was against the CEI's creation

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from its inception (the majority of the commissioners are
affiliated with the opposition, including CEI President Mambe),
this marks the first time the organization's integrity is being
attacked from within. It also seems that with Mambe's presidency
in question, individual CEI commissioners at the national and
regional level are now deciding on an individual basis whether or
not they will implement the prime minister's directive to transfer
disputed cases to the observation committees for a decision. The
end result is that some CEI offices untouched by the scandal have
continued working, while others have stopped work completely or
have been prevented from working by protestors. End Comment.
NESBITT