LC polls budget won't go beyond sh10b - Kasaija

PIC: Ben Kumumanya, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, looks on as  finance minister Matia Kasaija speaks while appearing before the Parliamentary committee on Local governments on Wednesday. (Credit: Roderick Ahimbazwe)

KAMPALA - Minister of finance Matia Kasaija on Wednesday ruled out increasing the budget for the impending Local Council elections from the initial sh10b.

He said the Electoral Commission (EC) and other stakeholders should readjust and operate within the available resource envelope.

Kasaija and technocrats from EC, and ministries of finance, local government and gender were at parliament to interface with lawmakers sitting on the local government committee over the local government amendment Bill, 2016.

The amendments in the Bill seek to further reduce the cost of conducting village and parish level elections - an exercise that has not been conducted since 2000 after the constitution court ruled that the manner in which LC polls were being conducted was out of sync with a multiparty political dispensation.

This followed a petition by then opposition firebrand-turned ruling party ideologue, Rubamira Ruranga.

"It's sh10b or nothing. I have nothing useful to add," Kasaija said in response to a question by committee chairperson whether government was amenable to the idea of increasing the budget for LC polls from sh10b to sh15.9b.

Earlier, Leonard Mulekwah, the director operations at EC told lawmakers that sh10b was inadequate to conduct polls in over 50,000 villages in Uganda.

Mulekwah told lawmakers that sh10b was agreed upon on condition that the whole exercise - nomination, campaigns, and voting would take place on one day.

"We have to conduct these elections in line with multiparty requirements as ordered by constitutional court. I don't think its possible to conduct nominations in one day which makes the figure of sh10b inadequate," Mulekwah said.

MPs Raphael Magyezi  and Roland Mugume warned that LC polls conducted  haphazardly might be successfully challenged in court leading to double expenditure.