United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara: Approaching the Eleventh Hour

Author: Jeff Fischer
Date of Publication: 07/01/2002

Description/Summary

This paper explores the strategies, operational considerations and political options available to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to complete its mandate. These options are further elaborated into a plan of action to end the current stalemate over issues of voter eligibility associated with the status referendum.
MINURSO’s principal implementing partners are the government of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro, or Frente POLISARIO. The threat of violence emanating from both camps has been an undercurrent to the implementation of the Settlement Agreement. This threat has taken the form of human rights violations and intimidation of Saharawis, as the inhabitants of Western Sahara are known, and extends back to the 1960’s. According to Human Rights Watch, “In Morocco/Western Sahara, both civil society and state institutions are engaged in a lively debate over how to reckon with the legacy of gross human rights abuses committed during the reign of King Hassan II, notably during efforts to suppress leftist dissidents and advocates of self-determination for the disputed territory of Western Sahara between the 1960s and 1980s. These abuses included hundreds of cases of ‘disappearances’ that remain unresolved today, prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and long-term imprisonment on political charges.”
The Frente POLISARIO has kept the pressure on the conflict by its longstanding threat of resuming military action if progress is not made on the political front. After voter registration was temporarily suspended in May 1996, the Frente POLISARIO stated, “If POLISARIO decides to recommence its military operations, then it is entirely justified in doing so. POLISARIO has shown in recent years that it wants to choose the path of peace, but in the absence of a political solution it is now left with no choice but to fight for the rights of the Saharawi people.”
Such instability is not in the interest of the region or the international community. A vacuum in governance can create a haven for transnational crime and terror networks, which have become a focus of international concern since September 11. An eruption of violence on the western edge of the Mahgreb States threatens further destabilization in Algeria and creates another external concern for Egypt, already managing internal security problems while attempting to exert influence on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Therefore it would seem that the time is ripe for the international community to generate the political will to hold the referendum and reach a final settlement.
However, for more than a decade, the referendum has been stalled on the key issue of voter identification. Each side has a distinct view of how the electorate should be determined. This impasse illustrates a general principle: the importance of establishing personal identity for the conduct of democratic processes. It is the first of four issues related to personal identity in electoral processes: 1) identity establishment; 2) identity confirmation; 3) identity theft; and 4) identity cleansing.
The second phenomenon, identity confirmation, is by far the most common and is carried out every time a voter presents his or her voter ID card at a polling station. Identity theft, also known as voter impersonation, occurs when an identity is stolen for the purpose of casting a ballot. Identity cleansing is the systematic and widespread confiscation or destruction of identity documents to disenfranchise and displace significant populations of people.
The impasse in Western Sahara centers on the first category: identity establishment or the recording of an officially recognized identity with public authorities. This task is complicated in Western Sahara because of large refugee and displaced populations and differing definitions of who are the legal residents of the territory. By solving the technical and political issues associated with the identification and registration of eligible voters, a resurgence of violence can be avoided and a political process established to peacefully broker the conflicts between the two parties.

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