The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Justice Simon Byabakama has justified the Shs 6.2 billion released by government towards organizing the Local Council elections saying that the bulk of the funds will go towards paying the polling officials.
At the time when courts of law issued orders for the Electoral Commission to stop the process of the elections which had been slated for November last year, EC had already received Shs 15.9 billion from government to manage the electoral process.
But out of the Shs 15.9 billion, about Shs 6 billion had already been spent on registration of eligible voters across the 59,663 villages, among other activities.
Now, an additional Shs 6.2 billion has been allocated to the Electoral Commission to organize the July elections.
Read More: Govt Releases Shs 6.2Bn for LC 1 Elections, Polling Day Set for July 10
Addressing the press on Friday while announcing the new roadmap for the elections, Justice Byabakama dispelled claims that the funds initially released were wasted.
He explained that the money financed activities which will not be repeated in the new preparations.
“Money wasn’t lost. We employed over 60,000 people to manage the registration process last year. All processes had been done until courts stopped the elections. The registration we did in 2017 is still valid,” Byabakama said.
According to the EC boss, a huge chunk of the Shs 6.2 billion which has now been appropriated will in fact pay the polling officials.
Electoral Commission will employ close to 200,000 polling officials who will be managing the elections across the country. The exercise will require each of the 60,801 polling stations to have an election official, a polling assistant, and law and order officer.
In addition, EC will deploy 8,390 parish election officials and 1,667 sub-county election officials. In total, 191,850 election officials will be deployed to manage the exercise.
“This additional funding is necessary. How do you pay these people? How do you conduct an election without these people? Electoral Commission doesn’t have that staff capacity,” Justice Byabakama told journalists.
He added; “The bulk of the Shs 6.2bn will be to pay these people as temporary staff. If you don’t have them, you can’t have elections. The money isn’t for EC officials to sit and enjoy in hotels”.
Polling for the LC 1 elections will take place on July 10 according to the new roadmap while the Women Councils will be elected on July 3.