Africa-Press – Uganda. ELECTION WATCH 2021The Government is to release an additional sh5b to the political parties during this financial year, finance minister Matia Kasaija has revealed.He, however, has directed that the additional funds for political parties must be shared equally rather than on the basis of their numerical strength in Parliament.There are five parties represented in Parliament — the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the Democratic Party (DP), the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and Justice Forum (JEEMA). It means each party will receive sh1b.NRM has 293 MPs, followed by FDC (36), DP (15), UPC (six) and JEEMA (one). The five constitute the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD). Asuman Basalirwa, Kasaija asked him to follow up the matter with the Electoral Commission (EC), the disbursing agent, once the next instalments are released in the third and fourth quarters of this financial year. Kasaija said the ministry has so far released sh15b out of sh20b to the parties to finance their activities. When the sh15b was released in October this year, the minister instructed the EC to allocate the money to the parties on the basis of their numerical strength.Thus, NRM received the lion’s share amounting to sh12b out of the sh15b, FDC received sh1.5b, DP got sh600m, UPC sh300m while JEEMA, received sh41m. Basalirwa yesterday wondered what the minister was planning to do now that the money has already been distributed among the parties. “I forewarned the Government and was ignored. Is the ministry going to compensate JEEMA and the rest of the parties? This is taxpayers’ money appropriated by Parliament. It was distributed on the basis of numerical strength to the detriment of the other political players and political parties. How will the ministry solve that mistake should we raise a legal challenge?” he asked.Kasaija said they have reviewed Basalirwa’s arguments. Unfortunately, the money is released on quarterly basis and the parties should follow up the next release to ensure that it is distributed according to the law.
