Money alone may not guarantee you  electoral success

Credible electoral processes increase the legitimacy of political institutions. It can also improve levels of trust in elected representatives.  

How transparent an election is, depends on the voting process on election day as well as how inclusive and representative the process is more broadly. 
When the NRM party announced their roadmap to hold party primaries, the aspirants had to visit their banks to secure the first pond. Since 1996, the cost of contesting for elections at presidential, parliamentary, and local government levels has been escalating. 

To date “the country is facing a monster of commercialised electoral politics and we must deal with it. MPs had complained that religious leaders besiege them during election time with demands for money in strategically organised fundraisers, and the politicians end up spending a lot of money since they do not want to disappoint their potential voters.

According to the ACFIM report, election campaign spending has been growing exponentially since 1996 when the country conducted the first election under the current Constitution. The cost of contesting for a political seat has risen so high that this study estimates contestants for Member of Parliament in 2021 to spend upwards Shs500m.

There is a perception among politicians that campaign agents that money largely influenced the outcome of elections in 2016 at different electoral levels. Majority of respondents (79 per cent) believe that money influenced voter decisions and subsequent outcome of the election. When it comes to constituency spending, the incumbent is always in a hot spot. During election campaigns, political parties and candidates spend money on legitimate and illegitimate electoral activities. 

Unregulated campaign spending opens doors for disproportionate expenditure by and on behalf political parties or candidates who are well-resourced. This in effect distorts the fairness of election campaigns at all levels of elections in Uganda.

What all the researchers under estimated is that this election will go beyond money and can turn violent. This is as those with money will spend it and won’t fill contented and resort to use of guns .The contestants too will not be spared, for example, in Sembabule District, the Woman Member of Parliament, Hanifa Kawooya, was assaulted and the aspiring aspirant for Hoima Beatrice Wembabazi was not spared either. 

I am not a prophet of doom, but we are yet to see more violence if action is not taken to avert it. But this requires the good will of all stakeholders. There was a time when standing for an elective seat in Uganda meant literally standing on a platform with a microphone, loudspeakers and addressing a crowd at a trading centre or urban estate on why they should elect you and not your opponent. Your campaign team would have planted your campaign posters on everywhere, and where necessary, getting your youth group to tear down your opponents.

In those days, there were “promises” given to prospective voters. The “promises” were like castles in the air, as they were soon forgotten as soon election and then recycled five years later for the next election. With the advent of multi-party democracy, the party that sponsors you had to have a manifesto and you needed to have a development vision for your constituency. But today, posters and standing on a platform and addressing a crowd are not enough to get you elected. Ugandans have become more technologically-minded, with many using social media.

We can make a difference. A peaceful campaign is possible if we could sensitise voters on the futility of using money in elections.

By Faridah Lule 

Ms Lule is an election analyst working with Citizens’ Coalition 
for Electoral Democracy in Uganda. [email protected]