Speaker Anita Among has accused some officials from Electoral Commission of inflating the Shs58.08Bn quoted as costs for organising the Local Council elections, saying the cost cited is too high for an election that will require voters to line up, behind their preferred candidates, instead of the normal ballot boxes voting.
“Even if you gave my MPs here Shs5M to go & have elections in their places, elections will be there. The problem we have is exaggerating figures, we can’t give Shs57Bn (Shs58.08Bn), that is a lot of money, let us have a realistic figure for us to give money for LC1 elections. As Parliament, let us not be pushed into approving money anyhow because we are desperate for LC1s by approving any amounts,” remarked Among.
The Speaker’s accusations followed complaints raised by Henry Kibalya (Bugabula South) who said that the recent expiry of the tenure of the current LC1s in office has created a leadership and political crisis after some local leaders hid the stamps in fear that some rowdy electorates would confiscate these stamps after deeming their local leaders expired.
He explained, “There is a crisis in our villages, the chairpersons in our areas have hidden the stamps because the community has threatened to grab the stamps. Government should come out and tell the country what is next? Recently we were somewhere at a function, they invited the Chairman LCI and the community refused. They said, “he is expired so he should stop addressing.”
Kibalya was backed by Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga who asked the Speaker to request the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija to explain if he had mobilized funds for the organisation of the LCI elections, wondering if now Government is being run like a WhatsApp group without data.
“We are leaders in this country, and these corridors are awash with information as to why we are where we are and one such information is that the Ministry of Finance didn’t make money available for this process. The Minister of Finance is in the House, can we demand with your permission whether he has made money available so that we can stop wasting time over matters within our space. Is the Minister of Finance aware whether money has been found or being found for this process? I don’t know whether this Government is a WhatsApp group and it needs data,” said Mpuuga.
EC Defends LC1 Elections Cost
However, earlier before the Speaker’s remarks, Simon Byabakama, Chairperson Electoral Commission defended the proposed Shs58.08Bn budget the Commission had submitted to organise Local council elections and women council elections, saying there is a proposal to have these two elections being held simultaneously, a move that will save the country Shs38.4Bn if the two elections are to be held separately.
The lawmakers on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs including Robina Rwakoojo (Gomba West), Robert Ssekitoleeko (Bamunanika County) and Santa Alum (Oyam DWR) all wondered why the cost was higher than the past elections and if there was no other cheaper ways to conduct elections since the country was being challenged with the lining up method.
Byabakama attributed the increase number of villages that were recently created as well as the high cost of fuel noting, “As you rightly pointed out, in 2018, we had about 54,000 villages, now, they are 71,000 villages. The cost of fuel in 2018 was about Shs3000, now it is about Shs6000, so these are some of the cost drivers.”
According to the Ministry of Local Government, there are about 10,595 LC2 chairpersons and 70,626 village chairpersons in Uganda, a number critics have always said is bloating the cost of administration with the creation of new administrative units.
However recently, Speaker Among said that the 11th Parliament may not create new administrative units until the ones created in the 10th Parliament are fully operationalised.
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