Electoral Commission Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi. PHOTO/HANDOUT
Uganda’s plans to hold a successful 2026 general election may be adversely affected if the government fails to cover an unfunded gap totalling Shs624 billion. The aforementioned amount constitutes the vast bulk of the Shs765 billion required by the Electoral Commission (EC) to deliver on its constitutional mandate.
While meeting Parliament’s Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs last Friday afternoon, EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama reported that only a fraction of the entire planned amount has been catered to thus far. “This Budget Framework Paper is crucial for the delivery of free and fair 2025/2026 General Election whose polling is scheduled between January 12 and February 9, 2026. This makes the Financial Year 2025/2026 unique and thus requires all activities to be adequately funded and implemented on schedule as per the roadmap,” Justice Byabakama said.
He said: “The total funding requirement for the Financial Year (FY) 2025/2026 is Shs764.705 billion. However, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework provision for FY2025/2026 is Shs140.801 billion, leading to a funding gap of Shs623.904 billion.” Justice Byabakama asked the lawmakers on the committee to convince colleagues currently processing the National Budget Framework Paper (NBFP) for FY2025/2026 to allocate the said funds.
According to the EC boss, the government is expected to strongly find the needed funds since all outlined activities are crucial to the successful execution of the entire 2025/2026 electoral roadmap. “In order to have all elected leaders sworn in by May 12, 2026, the Commission requests that funds for Financial Year 2025/2026 be timely and adequately released so that polling is undertaken between January 12 to February 9, 2026,” Justice Byabakama told the lawmakers.
What is at stake? In a detailed submission to the House Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by Bukooli North lawmaker Stephen Bakka Mugabi, the EC boss indicated that failure to access the said funds will stall a string of critical activities on the Commission’s roadmap.
“This budget item is completely unfunded. It should be noted that in the FY2024/2025, the Commission was allocated Shs388.5 billion to implement Phase I and II of the roadmap. However, no allocation has been provided in the FY2025/2026 to implement the EC activities under Phase III of the roadmap,” Justice Byabakama noted.
According to documents the EC submitted to the committee, the FY2025/2026 is Phase III and the final phase of the 2025/2026 General Election, during which critical electoral activities are to be undertaken.” These activities include nomination, printing of ballot papers, election results transmission and dissemination systems, biometric voter verification, campaigns, polling, tallying and declaration of results are planned for implementation. The same documents further indicate that “the Commission was allocated Shs26.826 billion towards the construction of its headquarters in FY2024/2025, no funds have been released.”
To this end, the EC has asked that the money be traced to actualise the EC’s relocation plan. The EC has since January 2023 been housed at Plot 1/3-5, 7th Street, Industrial Area, Kampala in a structure provided by the National Housing and Construction Company Limited (NHCC).
