Parliament Tasks Ministry Of Finance To Prioritize Funds For Local Council Elections

Legislators have tasked the Ministry of Finance to prioritise funding of the elections for Local Councils I, II and the women’s councils.

The demands were made during the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 12 July 2023.

Hon. Susan Amero (Indep., Amuria District Woman Representative) said that since the terms of local council chairpersons expired, no money has been availed to facilitate the election of new office bearers.
“Since we have the three per cent contingency funding, shouldn’t we work towards utilising it for this purpose?” Amero asked.

Hon. Geoffrey Macho (Indep., Busia Municipality) said land transactions cannot be concluded due to the absence of officials to process them at the village level.
“Yesterday we had people who failed to buy land in Busia because the LC chairman feared to sign since his term of office already expired,” said Macho.

Oyam District Woman Representative, Hon. Sandra Alum tasked the Finance and Local Government Ministers to expeditiously address the funding gap and report to Parliament.

Speaker Anita Among noted that the Attorney General recently informed Parliament that the term for women’s councils would be temporarily extended.

Recently, a section of lawyers warned that local councils carrying out any official duties beyond the expiry of their term of office would be acting in contravention of provisions of the Local Government Act, 2010.

The Minister for Local Government, Hon. Raphael Magyezi said the budget deficit supposed to cover activities for the elections is Shs59 billion.

He added that the ministry is holding consultations with the Electoral Commission, the Attorney General, and the Ministries of Finance and Gender on a way forward.

“We are looking at this together and we shall give a comprehensive statement that covers both the LCs and women’s councils,” said Magyezi.