Candidate Museveni spent over Shs 900bn in 2021 elections 

A report by the Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM) has indicated that President Yoweri Museveni as a candidate, spent over Shs 900 billion in the last 2021 presidential election.

The lowest-spending presidential candidate injected at least Shs 70 million into the election cycle, according to the ACFIM report. The report further estimates that a combined total of Shs 3.9 trillion (US$1bn) was pumped into electioneering activities for the 2021 general elections by political parties and candidates at presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections in the 146 districts of Uganda over a period of 15 months. 

This makes the 2021 general elections the most expensive ever in Uganda’s history. Earlier in the 2016 election, a combined total of Shs 2.4 trillion is estimated to have been spent. Museveni extended his 35-year-old stronghold to power after he was controversially announced winner by the Electoral Commission after securing 5.85 million votes (58.64 per cent) against Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s 3.48 million votes (34.83 per cent) amidst allegations of bribery, ballot stuffing, election violence and other electoral malpractices.

At the parliamentary level, the lowest spender used Shs 50 million, while the highest spender used over Shs 3.5 billion. At the district chairperson level, the lowest spender used Shs 50 million, while the biggest spender used over Shs 700 million. Most of the spending was directed towards cash donations and inducing voters to return the favour on the election day.

Now, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Simon Byabakama has called for the formulation of laws to regulate electoral financing. During the media engagement at Royal Suites, Bugoloobi, Byabakama said the commercialization of politics has become a cancer in the country’s democratic journey.

“We are informed that as of today [Thursday], if you want to contest for parliament, you will need not less than Shs 500 million on the lower side. This inevitably forces aspirants to look for these bags of money. Some even go to the extent of selling off their property in order to fund their political activities.”

“If someone has sold his property and put this money in the electoral process, does he have the mindset of losing an election? You sell your property and sink in Shs 500 million, or Shs 1 billion? This is a danger to our process and progress as a country. This explains the temptation to bribe voters and so on. This defines some of the aspects of violence, bribery of voters, and others,” he said.

Byabakama noted that elections have winners and losers; candidates and their supporters must go to race expecting to either lose or win.

“Unfortunately, we do not yet have a campaign finance law in place that regulates how much money candidates or political parties are allowed to inject into the campaign; this is an area that requires urgent attention,” he said.

ELECTORAL VIOLENCE

Conversely, Byabakama expressed his dismay over the growing forms of violence during or before elections. Byabakama said the majority must reject the violence being perpetuated by the minority. 

“People who perpetrate violence are individuals we need to identify and isolate so that they are dealt with in accordance with the law. We need to do this because nobody’s going to do it for us as a nation. We can only thrive in whatever we do, live peacefully, leave our homes to our workplaces, and leave our children to school when we have a peaceful and secure country”

“The advent of violence during elections should be of concern to every individual in this country who feels that they have a stake in this country. When violence is perpetrated, it causes fear in the hearts and minds of some people, which results in some voters keeping away from the polling process. We need to build a culture of respect for the rule of law and following guidelines issued by the Electoral Commission,” he said.

He called upon stakeholders in the electoral process to denounce all forms of violence, be it physical or verbal, saying elections are not the primary reason for the existence of the country since people don’t live, survive and prosper on only elections.