Uncertainty looms over LC elections

PARLIAMENT. The fate of the Local Council I and II elections hangs in the balance after the Finance ministry failed to definitively clear the air over whether it will provide the Shs15b that the Electoral Commission insists is mandatory for the elections to be held.
The ministry and the Electoral Commission (EC) have been locked in a dispute over funding for the polls after the electoral body was forced to revise its original budget from Shs 505b to Shs35b.

With the government insisting that it has no money, the EC further downsized its figure from Shs35b to Shs15.9b, but the government still rejected the estimates.
The Finance ministry wants the budget to be revised to Shs10b, but the EC says that is not enough to hold the ballot in Uganda’s 57, 842 villages and 7,431 parishes.
Yesterday, Finance State minister (Planning) David Bahati told Parliament’s Local Government Committee that the government will bankroll “the necessary funds” to conduct the Local Council I and II elections, but declined wading into the contentious debate on the figures.

“As the minister for Local Government has said, we have come so far to look back at this process. If the process is concluded, if all the necessary amendments are put in place, we shall look for the necessary funds to implement what the people’s representatives will have decided,” Mr Bahati said, before excusing himself out of the committee.
Mr Bahati declined responding to inquiries from journalists about the money for LC elections after the meeting, maintaining that the government will only engage in the figures’ debate after Parliament has passed the Local Government Amendment Bill, 2016.

The EC has warned that if MPs introduce amendments to the Bill during the Second Reading, the cost will shoot up from Shs15b.
But a source familiar with the ongoing haggling between the Finance ministry and Electoral Commission yesterday indicated that the government is not ready “to commit any penny more than Shs10b” to Local Council elections.
Government also maintained that voters will line up behind candidates’ [portraits] of their choice, rejecting warnings by the committee chairman Raphael Magyezi (NRM, Igara West) that the Committee has received bi-partisan rejections of the proposal.

Electoral Commission secretary, Sam Rwakoojo yesterday told MPs that the electoral body had planned to hold registration of voters, nomination of candidates, campaigns, elections and declaration of results all in one day because of resource constraints, plans that were shot down.
“The average village in Uganda has about 200-300 people who probably know each other. By that time [of elections], parties would have identified candidates, campaigns would take place there and then and elections would also take place,” Mr Rwakoojo said.
The Local Government Committee is expected to table a report on the Bill when Parliament reconvenes on Tuesday.

Background

Contention. Cabinet rejected EC proposals to hold all LC election activities in one day, proposing in the Local Government Amendment Bill 2016 to amend Clause 159A to provide that the display of the voters’ register under section 25(1) of the Electoral Commission Act should take at least two days.
Contention. Mr Mwesigwa Rukutuna, the Deputy Attorney General and State Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs yesterday put the EC on notice not to wait for amendments to begin compiling a voters’ register.
“Compiling a voters’ register is an administrative issue. Even today, nothing precludes the EC from compiling a voters’ register. It is not time-bound, “Mr Rukutuna said.

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