A fixed election is worth fighting
* Senegal Amadou Guiro, a leading member of Senegal's And-Jef - African Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS) explains why the country's left opposition will participate in November's local elections, despite predictions of massive fraud by the Diouf regime. • The Socialist Party has been in power for 35 years. How stable is the regime? Amadou Guiro: President Diouf has announced that he will be a candidate in the next Presidential elections. His aim was to hold back all the centrifugal forces that could place themselves at the centre of his party and cause problems. The moment he announced his candidature all the vague whisperings in the heart of the party were brought under control. Nevertheless, the crisis of the ruling party is extremely serious, as shown by the forces leaving it.
The battle for the succession is in full swing. Diouf is engaged in imposing a new successor, someone who hasn't been tested out in the centre of the party and who will hardly benefit from majority support. A crisis is opening up within the leading ranks of the party. • Municipal and rural elections will take place in November.
These elections were meant to take place in 1995. The Socialist Party didn't feel itself ready, and preferred to postpone them. Municipal and rural elections should take place every five years, and the last were held in 1990. In 1990 the opposition decided on a boycott because of problems posed at that time by the electoral code. That means that today all Senegal's municipal and rural councillors and mayors are members of the ruling • How will the PADS present itself?
These elections therefore give us a chance to place ourselves as an alternative political force. Our aim is not just to get a good vote but to get the maximum number of people elected. We are counting on transforming these elections into a very important stage for building the party. And Jef-PADS will present lists in every municipality, every rural community and, therefore, in every region. That means that the number of militants mobilised on this occasion will be considerable. It is obvious that if we just present candidates without doing the necessary mobilising work and building campaign committees at the level of the 34 International Viewpoint federation and the region we will waste this opportunity. • What will be the central themes of the PADS electoral campaign?
Although these are local elections our campaign will be very political. Our central slogan is "Vote them out!" ("folli" in Wolof). We are standing in order to beat the Socialist Party and throw out the team that has led the country for the past 35 years. The central aim of the PADS is to change both the people and the political institutions.
That is why we refused to enter the government when that was offered to us after the elections in February 1994 and the arrest of our leader Landing Savane and of Abdoulaye Wade, the leader of the main opposition party the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS). • How will you resist the electoral fraud everyone expects?
We don't have many illusions because we are aware that the electoral code, which in any case is not democratic, can be turned to the advantage of the ruling Socialist Party. That is why we have demanded the setting up of an independent national electoral commission charged with supervising the elections and ensuring their openness. Now the Socialist Party and the government have rejected this proposal. We also know that the whole administration, the Prefects and the Governors are on the side of the Socialist Party. There isn't the slightest doubt that the administrative machinery of the State will be mobilised to orchestrate fraud. Fraud has already started at the level of registration. At the time of the revision of the electoral lists we discovered that in certain places electors were struck off in a fraudulent fashion.
Fraud will also operate when the electoral cards are distributed - the Socialist Party will be watching out to ensure that its clients benefit. It will reach its height on the very day of the elections. Democratic control will be much greater in the major towns, where the opposition is present.
The PADS has decided to mobilise, in every place where we think there is a chance of winning seats, representatives who can read and write, who know the electoral code and are well aware of their rights and responsibilities so that we can protest about and overturn cases of fraud. Where there is clear proof of fraud we have decided to call on the people to mobilise. • Has the Party defined its policy on alliances for these elections?
During the last legislative elections we formed a coalition with two other parties (the PDS and the Socialist Unity Movement -MSU). This seemed correct at the time, but was later criticised by some of our electors and several other radical organisations.
We remember that, in 1992-4, the PDS, having taken a cavalier attitude towards the PADS in the Box-Senegal Alliance - which was, in any case, open to criticism in certain respects - ended up joining the government in 1994. Equally we failed to keep the PDS in the opposition until the municipal and rural elections, which would have strengthened the chances of the whole opposition beating the Socialist Party
The PDS wants to have its cake and eat it too (participate in the government and ally with the PADS in opposition). By participating in the government the PDS preferred to break its pledges to the people and to its allies - the PADS, the leftist Socialist Unity Movement (MSU) and the Mustarchidin and Mustarchidat (very influential progressive Muslim movements).
The conditions under which Wade entered the government have made it possible to expose the limitations of this party. Those sections of the population who no longer see the PDS as a credible alternative to the Socialist Party would not understand our choosing to present common lists with this party. Broad sections of the population realise that the PDS, and especially Wade, are not there to sweep out the regime but rather to bring benefits to their party base and
negotiate a place in the government - which is not at all our aim.
The PDS will be interested in a coalition with the PADS, but the PADS has no interest in forming a coalition with forces such as the PDS, who would turn against us without hesitating if they thought it would strengthen them.
Today we believe that if we want to constitute an alternative pole we have to do so by going into these elections on our own and atfirming our own identity. Consequently, our aim will be to beat the Socialist Party and to affirm the PADS as the left current. Wherever it is possible we will have our own lists.
In some places, where our party is very weak, we envisage an alliance with the MSU (with whom we made a joint campaign during the Presidential and legislative elections). In the department of Biloana (in Casamance, the rebel region in the South of Senegal) some important forces from the ruling Socialist Party have joined the PADS
We will also open up our lists to independent candidates because we have fought for their right to stand - the Socialist Party and government are opposed from fear of seeing some of their members opt for this
As for the question of alliances, we have to explain that our party is very much in favour of unity since the PADS is itself the result of the fusion of four left currents in December 1991. • The Diouf regime will presumably use fraud to maintain its rule. Given this, why is your party putting so much effort into electoral work?
If we insist on the need for the PADS to establish itself as an alternative pole of attraction it is because we estimate that there is a close relationship between these rural or regional elections and the next legislative elections in 1998 and presidential elections in the year 2,000. Today there is a feeling amongst people that nothing can be achieved with the Socialist Party or another Diouf. The PADS and its spokesperson Landing Savané appear, at the level of public opinion, as an alternative political force. • Will the PADS be standing many women candidates?
The party militants have insisted that there be at least 25% of women on the electoral lists and that women should be eligible to be included in the first ten names on the list. Within the party leadership we have agreed in principle on quotas for women. The practical ways and means will depend on the mobilisation of women comrades and their willingness to take on the responsibilities necessary for being at the top of the list. In some localities, even municipalities, women will certainly be at the top of the list.
Apart from the issue of quotas on the PADS lists, the central demands which came out of the perspectives document passed by the national conference of PADS women
Landing Savané and Amadou Guiro of the PADS dealt, in a general fashion, with the representation of women on electoral lists and the issue of women's economic power. The majority of women have no income, hence there is a need to develop initiatives at the regional level which would enable women to collectively experience management of their own organisations and financial resources.
The financial aspect of the electoral campaign is, in any case, more important for our party than the precise position of women candidates on the electoral slate. Because of our extremely limited resources, those comrades who stand for election as PADS candidates are obliged to pay part of their election expenses out of their own pockets. Women certainly don't have the same means to meet such costs. Many of them don't have even a minimum of economic independence to allow them to appear on the lists at the same level as men, even if they had the political abilities. To try to overcome this financial barrier which penalises women we have decided to make appeals to certain democratic organisations to financially support those candidates who have a chance of being elected. • What are your chances of success?
This is the first time since our foundation in 1991 that the PADS has participated in local elections. Consequently this opening means a lot is at stake for us, particularly since in the last presidential elections in February 1993 our party came third with an admittedly weak, but still significant, vote of around 3% This weak result is explained by
, a consequence of the polarisation between Abdou Diouf on one side and Abdoulaye Wade (president of the PDS) on the other - as well, of course, as the inevitable electoral fraud. * Notes For more information about Senegal, read our interview with PADS leader Landing Savané (IV#268) and with Badara Ndiaye (IV#264).
Senegal * The sweet smell of corruption by Amadou Guiro SUD NEWSPAPER IS ONE OF THE PREMIER organs of the free press in Senegal. It has played an extremely important role in the fight for democracy. At first a weekly it has subsequently managed to transform itself into a daily and establish a radio station. Because it supports plurality and is open to the people Sud poses a real threat to all those corrupt people in the regime. This threat is even more real today when the country is preparing for elections in which the inevitably large scale fraud will be denounced by this paper.
The Sud communications group has recently been sentenced because it brought into the public gaze the affair of Jean-Claude Mimeran, a French industrialist who has profited from enormous favours, particularly in relation to the sugar monopoly. Sud revealed that Mimeran had been caught by Customs importing refined sugar without permission.
To cover up this fraud the authorities have not been content just to claim that the sugar was unrefined; for the first time they have allowed themselves to sentence a newspaper to a fine of 50 million CFA francs ($US 100.000) and to jail six of its journalists for five months.
Today the PADS is actively engaged in defending that organ of the press and. in a broader fashion, defending free speech and the freedom of journalists. who should not be at the mercy of big finance capital. What has been revealed is that the highest people in this country are in hock to Mimeran and the close complicity existing between this industrialist and the governing circles is well understood.
The recent condemnation of the Sod communications group is not simply a question of attacks on the freedom of the press but also reflects new forms tr dependence in relation to imperialism
Today, while brandishing the flag ur liberalism and privatisation. sectors remain private fiefs. Min has a near total monopoly of suga has no intentions of handing it ove national economic sectors. especia the commercial sector.
The battle waged today by ministration against Sud newspa Sud-FM radio station to a certa reflectds the struggle within the cliques. The crisis of the regim State apparatus is unprecedentes have alwars succeeded in m some level of cohesion at the we are witnessing clear spite to deepen them. *
Tawards a
Alternative with lots of demonstrations and other activities • The Dutch Committee for a Different Europe invites you to take part in debates and actions for a social, green, democratic and feminist Europe. • Preparations for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) are leading to the dismantling of public services and social security and rising unemployment in almost every EU member state • the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) has begun: the fifteen member states are negotiating to revise the Maastricht Treaty, the treaty that has propelled the European Union into its current credibility crisis According to plan, these negotiations are supposed to end with the signing of a new treaty by the heads of government during their June 1997 Amsterdam summit. • Together the EMU and IGC will largely determine the character of the European Union and thus the daily lives of Europe's citizens. But discussion OT these developments is going on mainly among politicians. • For the moment there is no broad debate about the threats posed by European integration, plans for an EU detense bloc,
"Europeanisation" of the French and British nuclear arsenals. Our Europe must be a Europe that carries out a strong social and environmental policy, creates jobs, eliminates the democratic deficit, offers equal opportunities to women and men, safeguards the rule of law, is hospitable to refugees, is open to the East and in solidarity with the South, disarms in order to contribute to peace, and promotes sustainable development both inside and outside Europe.
Parallel to the June 1997 Amsterdam Summit, there will be an alternative conterence, demonstrations and other activities. We invite all progressive parties, groups, NGO's and others to take part in this Summit tor a Different Europe Get in touch! Committee for a Different Europe, c/o A SEED Europe, P.O. Box 92066, 1090 AB Amsterdam, Holland. E-mail: ander.europa@aseed.antenna.nl © (+31) 20/66.82.23.6 36 International Viewpoint book notes
There is only one word: Resist East Timor (ASIET) September, 1996, 40pp. US$5 plus air postage. • Foreward by Nico Warouw, International General Representative of the PRD. The July 27 1996 crackdown • Why is the dictatorship trying to destroy the PRD, by Max Lane • The PRD in action, April 1995-July 1996: a chronology of actions • Rebuttal of accusations against the PRD by PRD centre on July 31, 1996 • "Unite with the People" - statement on the capture of PRD Chairman, Budiman Sujatmiko, August 12, 1996. What is the PRD: documents • Manifesto of the PRD: July 22, 1996. • The New Order and Capitalism.: An excerpt from a document outlining the nature of Indonesian society and a program for democratic transformation adopted at the April, 1996 founding congress of the PRD. • The PRD Program (excerpts). • The Urgent Needs and Demands of the People • A Peoples Coalition Government and its commitments • Mass organisations affiliated to the PRD. • The artistic voice of the PRD: poems by the chairperson of the People's Art Network, Wiji Thukul. Background • Winning Democracy: a new stage for the progressive movement - by Max Lane of ASIET and Australia's Democratic Socialist Party
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