The Electoral Commission of Uganda is seeking financial support for Shs 428b to start preparations for the forth coming 2021 general elections.
Appearing before the Legal and Parliament Affairs Committee, the EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama stated that the commission does not have enough funds as he presented their proposed budget for 2019/2020. He also appealed to agencies to come in and fund the commission.
He explained that for the first phase which starts in March this year, they will need Shs139b while the second phase that will run in 2019/2020 they need Shs283b which have not been provided.
“We do not make only our case here in parliament for funds. We engage with finance, we appeal to agencies that we need money to carry out these processes,” Byabakama said.
Byabakama further said that since the number of districts has increased, they need over Shs5b to conduct elections in both the six newly created districts and for another seven that will begin operating in July this year.
According to the Electoral Commission Strategic Road Map for 2021 elections released in December last year, the number of districts will increase to 141 by 2021 from the 121 that held elections in 2016, while the municipalities will increase from 39 to 80, sub counties from 1,398 to 2,000 and the parishes from 7,431 to 9,500.
The villages will also increase from 57,842 to 65,200 and polling stations are expected to reach 35,000 from 28,010 of 2016.
The EC also anticipates and increase in the number of voters to get to 19.4 million from 15.2 million of 2016, an increase of 4.2 million voters in a period of five years.
