By Frank Kamuntu
Lawmakers sitting on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee have raised concerns over the UGX 1.119 trillion being sought by the Independent Electoral Commission in preparations for the 2026 general elections.
With the roadmap issued early last year already being implemented, the activities will climax with the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Governments elections between January and February 2026.
However, some lawmakers are sceptical about the planned expenditure on the roadmap implementation processes, pointing out likely wasteful and inflated figures cited by the Commission.
This followed a presentation made by Leonard Mulekwah, Secretary to EC, who protested the allocation of UGX 150, 283 billion in the 2024/25 financial year budget. He said that EC wants up to UGX 1.119 trillion, with many activities happening within the period that Parliament is currently budgeting for. To Mulekwa, this leaves a funding gap of UGX 969.282 billion, something he insisted leaves the EC in a difficult position in regard to the roadmap implementation.
We haven’t got funds this financial year, so we have had to move the priorities of this year to next year but even when we do that, we have UGX 158.3 billion out of UGX 1.1 trillion. So, activities of phase one that may not be funded have to be pushed in the next financial year and we shall require funds for both phase one and phase two, said Mulekwa.
Mulekwah said that in the three-month work plan, the Electoral Commission plans to undertake preliminary activities for the 20225/26 general elections, which include recruitment, training and deployment of sub-county and parish supervisors and sign language interpreters at district and city level
He said the other activities to be undertaken include the demarcation of parliamentary constituencies and local government electoral areas, construction of Electoral Commission headquarters premises and Arua regional office storage facilities, as well as conducting capacity building and training of Commission staff and continuous voter education and publicity and undertake financial remittances to political parties and organisations with representation in Parliament.
According to the EC Strategic Plan 2022/2023 to 2026/2027, the estimated expenditure on the general elections is UGX 1.387 trillion. This includes what is supposed to be spent this financial year, 2023/24. In the next financial year, the Strategic Plan indicates that the EC wants to spend UGX 569.6 billion, while the required budget for 2025/2026 is UGX 622.1 billion.
A look at the roadmap shows that the remaining key activities for the year ending 30th June 2024 include procurement of materials and services for the demarcation of electoral areas, reorganising polling stations and recruitment, training and deploying Sub-County Supervisors for reorganising polling stations.
In the coming financial year whose Budget is being processed by Parliament, the EC will handle the field demarcation of Constituencies and Electoral Areas and reorganising of polling stations (July 2024); general update of voters’ register in each parish; compilation of registers for Special Interest Groups, Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) and Professional Bodies; and cut-off of the update of national register (both in January 2025).
While scrutinising the documents submitted to the Committee by the EC, Ndorwa East MP, Wilfred Niwagaba wondered why almost UGX 500 million is planned to be spent on hosting national prayers. He also questioned why the EC, which has a legal team in place, has been spending a lot of money on hiring private lawyers whenever sued in election petitions.
When I was perusing through your budget, especially this particular annex, why would you need to spend UGX 18 billion on external lawyers when your internal legal department can handle petitions and the like? Why would you need to spend UGX 500 million on a national prayer breakfast for elections? I know this country is prayerful, but we always have a national prayer breakfast day. Can’t we combine that in one? Why do we need new constituencies and new electoral areas? Honestly speaking, is there no way you can talk the Government out of this madness? asked Niwagaba.
Remigio Achia, Pian County MP, asked the EC to undertake detailed research on how elections can be made cheaper in Uganda and have some of the resources used in elections spent on human development sectors like education and health.
So, the UGX 1.1 trillion that would have been spared on health and education within the same voters is just for the Electoral Commission. We need to have a discussion on how we can make elections in this country a little cheaper. I don’t know whether we have a research department within the Electoral Commission to see how we can make elections cheaper in our country. I know that democracy is good when it expands our human rights and our expression of opinions, but when we look at where to find the money, how can we make it cheaper? noted Achia.
Defending the EC, Stephen Baka, Bukooli North MP, said that Parliament should take the blame for the ever-increasing number of Constituencies because it is not the mandate of the EC to create them.
The problem isn’t the Electoral Commission; the problem is us. We are the ones creating constituencies and electoral areas. So, the problem isn’t the Electoral Commission because these people, by law, are supposed to implement what we have done. So, we have created constituencies even when there shouldn’t be. Can we downsize? Yes, we can make elections cheaper, we can make elections cheaper, yes, cut the offices down, said Baka.
For the general elections activities, UGX 756.9 billion was requested, but only UGX8.638 billion was availed, leaving a funding gap of UGX 756.988 billion.
In the breakdown, the third and final instalment of the staff wage enhancement, amounting to UGX 11.16 billion and due in 2019/2020, has not been honoured to date, while the Commission also requires UGX 1.66 billion for staff remuneration in the ten new cities and Terego districts.
The Commission noted that the cost of establishing an office in a City or District is UGX 659.6 million, which translates into UGX 7.299 billion required for the ten new cities of Jinja, Mbarara, Gulu, Arua, Masaka, Fort Portal, Mbale, Soroti, Hoima, and Lira and the District of Terego, whose commencement date was 1 July 2020.
EC officials revealed that despite financial challenges, the Registrars/Returning Officers for these areas continue to operate in offices for the mother Districts.
Mulekwa also revealed that the Commission still has pending financial obligations arising out of the 2015/16 and 2020/21 general elections petitions, saying that these cases were handled by private firms in addition to the Commission’s in-house lawyers.
He said that the Commission plans to create more directorates, departments and city divisions to improve delivery of electoral services which requires UGX 8.648 billion thus bringing the total funding gap in respect to staff salaries to UGX 21.468 billion.
Officials also informed the Committee that there is another UGX 168.567 billion funding gap for constructing EC headquarters after the Ministry of Finance only provided for UGX 3.720 billion in the coming financial year’s Budget.
