Opposition councillors outperform NRM counterparts- report
The recently released Local Government scorecard indicates that district councillors affiliated to opposition parties are performing relatively better than their counterparts in the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
According to the 2016/17 Local Government Councils Scorecard Assessment, councillors affiliated to Uganda People's Congress (UPC), the Democratic Party (DP) and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) performed relatively better with average scores of 55, 49, and 47, respectively, out of 100 possible points.
This pattern is mirrored in performance of the opposition councillors on all the assessment parameters - legislative role, contact with electorate, sub-county meetings and monitoring.
Of the 970 councillors assessed, 723 or 75 percent, are from NRM, 71 or seven percent from FDC, 36 or four percent from UPC, 35 or four percent from DP, and 102 or 11 percent are independent.
Meanwhile, the data shows that councillors serving more than one term performed only slightly better than first term ones. Councillors representing special interest groups like women, persons with disabilities, youths and elderly, were outperformed by directly elected councillors.
According to ACODE Research Fellow Lilian Tamale, the relatively poor performance could be because the special interest councillors serve more than one constituency, making their area of coverage wider.
Councillors representing the elderly, serving for the very first time ever, performed poorest of the group. Councillors don't earn salaries, but rely on allowances for council sitting, travel, workshops, etc. Per sitting of council, a councillor earns just Shs20,000.
According to Tamale, the elderly councillors are yet to gain their footing, a reason they performed relatively poorer than other interest groups in particular. The scorecard lists factors affecting council operations as shortcomings in adherence to standard rules of procedure, ineffective council administration, monitoring challenges, and administrative and policy gaps.
