CHAD ELECTION PROCESS PUSHES ON: OPERATING BUDGET

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NDJAMENA 000065 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/C STATE FOR S/USSES OSD FOR DASD HUDDLESTON NSC FOR GAVIN LONDON FOR POL - LORD PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR AU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF SU LY UN EU CD SUBJECT: CHAD ELECTION PROCESS PUSHES ON: OPERATING BUDGET AND PERMANENT BOARD OF ELECTIONS SET REF: NDJAMENA 16 -------------- SUMMARY AND COMMENT -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The Chadian electoral process, aimed at national legislative and municipal elections in Nov-Dec 2010, continues to roll forward, with the key steps of establishing a Permanent Board of Elections (BPE) and an electoral budget of USD 49 million taken by the government on Jan 27. Most of Chad's 120-some political parties have now aligned themselves with either the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) or the opposition Coalition for the Defense of the Constitution (CPDC). The informal International Working Group (IWC) of democratic donors continues to engage with the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI),the August 13 Accord Comite de Suivi (CS),and the new PBE to help these structures overcome obstacles on the road to credible elections later this year. Bipartisan commissions composed of political party reps to manage elections at the regional and departmental levels are 80 per cent complete, and are due to be finalized February 8. One important next step is passage of a package of legislative measures necessary to the elections. Another is the completion of the electoral census, which will established voter rolls, envisioned for March-May. ¶2. (SBU) This is still an ambitious enterprise, but the steady progress of Chad's fledgling "electoral machinery" continues, with considerable help from friends in the democratic donor community, in the knowledge that President Deby expects results along the lines he outlined last December. China is a recent addition to those offering to help Chad with its electoral process. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. -------------- BPE ESTABLISHED -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The IWG had an opportunity January 28 to interact briefly with the just-named Director General and Deputy Director General of Chad's first Permanent Board of Elections. The Director, Ahmet al-Hisene, a northern Muslim with a public health background, appeared modest and professional if overwhelmed at the prospect of having to play a neutral role in Chad's highly-charged environment. Al-Hisene acknowledged his lack of experience and said he would rely on his Deputy, Oudjan, a Christian southerner and demographer with Chad's Census Bureau, who has been a respected partner of the U.S. in the 2009 demographic census. Al-Hisene and Oudjan said that they had met with President Deby January 17, and that he had urged them to play nonpartisan roles in keeping with their positions. Both stressed that their first task would be recruiting personnel. -------------- ELECTORAL BUDGET DRAWN UP -------------- ¶4. (SBU) A national budget for elections has been prepared, based on the following broad outlines: Electoral census within Chad -------------- USD 16,570,300. Electoral census of diaspora -------------- USD 1,260,233. Legislative electoral budget -------------- USD 21,041,683. Local electoral budget -------------- USD 2,447,433. CENI operating budget -------------- USD 7,097,277. Start-up of BPE -------------- USD 487,783. TOTAL: USD 48,904,710. ¶5. (SBU) Embassies have been presented with far more detailed break-outs of each category, down to photocopying costs. When offering the budget to IWG Ambassadors, CENI Chairman Gami specified that the high cost for legislative NDJAMENA 00000065 002 OF 003 elections as compared with local ones was explained by the fact that local elections will only take place for those local officials with departmental or regional responsibilities. The technicalities of staging Chad's first-ever local elections absent all infrastructure to convert from an appointed to an elected system of administration has proven so daunting that the local process is now scheduled to take place in stages. Some local elections will accompany the presidential contest in 2011 and others may take place later (NFI). The CENI operating budget is large because it contains funding for all of the regional and departmental CENIs that are currently being stood up by the process of "demembrements." The budget for counting Chad's diaspora population will allow this group to vote in presidential elections but not legislative ones. ¶6. (SBU) In preparation for an eventual pledging session with the GoC, the IWG has spoken internally about possible electoral assistance funds. Thus far, France is still in the midst of deliberations on the size of its contribution. The EU has E1.5 million at work in various projects, and another E3 million on the way later this spring. UNDP currently has USD 1 million in its Trust Fund. Germany and Switzerland have promised E300,000 and E400,000 each. The OIF will not contribute financially, but plans to provide technical assistance in a variety of areas including encouraging women's suffrage; providing electoral observers; helping with resolution of electoral disputes; and helping with training of election workers. Little of the financial contributions of our partners, and none of our own likely grant of around USD 5 million, will go directly to the Chadian government to offset costs projected for the electoral process listed in para 4 above. ¶7. (SBU) China has publicly announced that it has a sum of USD 250,000 available to assist the CENI. Chinese diplomats have told us that their nation is an enthusiastic proponent of better governance in Chad, that Beijing doubts the efficacy of democracy here, that therefore it is not persuaded that elections will necessarily lead to better governance, but that orderly elections are clearly consistent with stability -- wherefore the Chinese desire to help the CENI. -------------- SPARRING -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Several IWG meetings with Chadian interlocutors on electoral themes this month focused on a manifesto issued January 26 by some members of the CPDC, who castigated the national CENI for its supposed pro-MPS bias in assigning political party reps to seats on regional and departmental electoral commissions (seven persons are to serve on regional CENIs, and six on departmental CENIs, vice 31 on the national CENI). The manifesto is currently preventing decisions on membership for N'Djamena's municipal CENI, but 80 per cent of regional and departmental CENIs have apparently been established without significant disputes. The deadline for the nationwide process of "demembrements" to be completed is February 8. ¶9. (SBU) CPDC elder statesman Lol Mahamat Choua, reasoning with his coalition partners in front of international witnesses January 27, called on each of the two coalitions that have taken shape in recent months to resolve internal differences internally, and not to break ranks with political brethren publicly, so as to try to encourage continued cohesion according to a "manageable two-party-like arrangement" in very fractious circumstances. The proposal was accepted, with Lol's more disputatious coalition partners making clear -- at his urging -- that their stated dissatisfaction with the ruling party should not be seen as constituting rejection of eventual national CENI decisions on membership of the N'Djamena municipal CENI. ¶10. (SBU) The international community responded to the NDJAMENA 00000065 003 OF 003 debate over demembrements by urging better coordination between the CENI and CS, and by advising the head of the CENI that it was incumbent on him and on his body to act in a manner that could not be read as partisan. -------------- TWO COALITIONS -------------- ¶11. (SBU) That all but 45 of Chad's 120-some political parties have already aligned themselves with either the ruling MPS or the opposition coalition CPDC strikes us as something of a victory in itself: the credibility of the upcoming elections will depend to an extent on the existence of a credible opposition. The 45 outlyer parties consist mainly of those who refused to sign the August 2007 Accords on government-opposition reconciliation, or those that have formed since the beginning of this year in the hope that becoming a party will lead to receipt of government or international financial aid. The international community is strongly of the view that political party development in Chad needs to include efforts to reduce the number of splinter parties by encouraging compromise and formation of blocs. -------------- ON THE HORIZON -------------- ¶12. (SBU) In the coming weeks, a package of revisions to Chad's existing electoral laws and statutes will have to be considered and passed by the National Assembly if elections are to move forward according to the agreed timetable. The package (essentially the same as a series of recommendations put together by the IWG in December) was delivered by the CS -- which has a watchdog role over major decisions of the CENI -- to the National Assembly January 27. Assuming that passage of the technical revisions can be accomplished without undue delay, the next major challenge in Chad's year of projected electoral milestones will be conducting the electoral census to establish voting rosters. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶13. (SBU) This is still an ambitious enterprise, but the steady progress of Chad's fledgling "electoral machinery" continues, with considerable help from friends in the democratic donor community, in the knowledge that President Deby expects results along the lines he outlined last December. The fractiousness of the opposition remains a feature of the political landscape here. ¶14. (U) Minimize considered. NIGRO