EC receives funds to organise LCI elections

The Electoral Commission has received the additional funding of sh7b which it needed to organise LCI and LCII elections.

This was revealed on Thursday by the parliament budget committee vice chairman Mudimi Wamakuyu, while receiving a report from the legal and parliamentary affairs committee.

"The Electoral Commission chairman told me in the morning that they have received the money for organising LCI and LCII elections. We therefore expect them to soon release the program for the elections," Wamakuyu told fellow legislators.

Parliament recently directed the ministry of finance to release the additional funds for the Electoral Commission to organise the elections. Uganda last held LCI elections in 2001, which is now about 17 years ago.

In the budget report made by the Local and Public Service committee passed last week, parliament resolved that the Electoral Commission should ensure LCI elections are organised within the next six months.

The EC deputy spokesman Paul Bukenya told New Vision that out of the sh15b they had received to organise the LCI and LCII elections which were stopped by court, they had spent sh7b on various preparation activities.

"After resolving the court case, we needed an additional sh7b to be able to organise the elections," he explained.

Last year on August 24, 2017 the Electoral Commission released a program for conducting LCI and LCII and women councils.

On November 13, 2017, some citizens secured court orders stopping the elections, a day before the polling date for village women councils and committees elections.

The petitioners contended that holding elections which had been scheduled to take place on November 21, 2017 when students were in school would disenfranchise students.

On November 15, 2017, court advised the commission and the petitioners to explore an out of court settlement and report back to court on January 3, 2018.

Court at the end of January 2018 endorsed the settlement between the parties and this cleared the commission to go on and organize the elections.