NRM election staff demand salary arrears of 17 months

Election officers of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party from across the country are demanding salary arrears of 17 months.

The NRM district election officers are, among others, mandated to oversee the party elections in districts and registering new party members.

The officers, who requested not to be named for fear of being victimised, told Monitor that the salary arrears have accumulated despite reminding their bosses at the party secretariat.

The delayed payment, officers said, has derailed party activities at district level, and also killed their motivation to work amid the harsh economic times.
“We have so far spent at least 17 months without being paid yet we have responsibilities to fulfil. Our bosses have been promising to pay us in vain, and we have now lost patience because of the biting economy. We have diligently served our party but have now lost motivation to work,” one of the officers said.

The officers also said they recently carried out mobilisation and sensitisation about the election processes, identified village, parish and sub-county registrars, and compilation of newly created units, and conducted women council elections.

Monitor couldn’t easily verify their claim that each one of them is entitled to a monthly pay of Shs1m. 

Recent demand
Last month, the chairperson of the National Executive Committee for district registrars, Mr Patrick Kamulindwa, wrote to party Secretary General Richard Todwong, seeking for an appointment to discuss the salary arrears issue.

“…the executive of the district and assistant elections officers have been overwhelmed by the calls across the country from colleagues requesting to know about their fate as regard to the arrears of about 17 months and the current status of their contract,” reads in part the August 24 letter.

The officers said the meeting between Mr Todwong and the executive of the district elections officers didn’t yield much. Mr Todwong couldn’t be reached for a comment yesterday.

The NRM Director of Information, Publicity and Public Relations, Mr Emmanuel Dombo, acknowledged that the party hasn’t cleared outstanding salary arrears for district election officers. However, he noted that the issue is being addressed.

“Their matter has been considered by the top management and will soon be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. We regret the inconvenience caused to them but thank them for their understanding and patience. Although the outstanding arrears are not that big, we hope that by the end of this year, they will have been fully sorted out,” he said.