By Mulengera Reporters
For two days at the beginning of this week, Gen Museveni met with SGs of opposition political parties with representation in Parliament. NUP and FDC stayed away, according to Executive Director Lawrence Serwambala whose IPOD organized the meeting which started on Monday and rolled over to Tuesday. POA says that his FDC intends to petition the Constitutional Court challenging recent legislative changes in the law relating to who accesses IPOD funds.
It was during that meeting that it was agreed that the Shs45bn, which the EC will be giving out to parties with representation in Parliament, be shared equally this being the election campaigning year. This is what the law (PPOA) decrees except that in 2021 it was never adhered to.
To partake of this money, a political party must have MPs in Parliament and also be an enrolled member of IPOD which brings together parties with representation in the legislature. Currently, we have 7 political parties in the Parliament of 529 MPs and these include NRM (342 MPs), NUP (57), FDC (32), UPC (11), DP (9), Jeema (1) and PPP (1).
The recent changes to the law made it mandatory that for the party in Parliament to benefit from the IPOD arrangement-availed billions, it must equally be an active member of IPOD as being represented in Parliament can’t be enough anymore. Napak Woman MP Faith Nakut sponsored the bill which the President assented to and thereby making it a must to be an IPOD member in order to access the billions.
Instead of opposing the Nakut Bill on the floor, NUP (which has annually been getting Shs5.7bn annually as NRM gets Shs34bn, UPC Shs908m, FDC Shs3bn, DP Shs908m as Jeema and PPP each got Shs100m) simply walked out of that session of Parliament. This eased the job for the NRM crowd to pass the same.
The money is annually shared in terms of numerical strength which is why NRM and NUP have ben getting the lion’s share. Each MP a party has fetches them Shs25m per quarter which comes to roughly Shs8m per month. That happens or lasts for the entire five-year period of that particular Parliament.
Having been found defiant and non-compliant to IPOD membership requirements, NUP is now ineligible to receive the money and Kavule (who claim its okay) bosses will be salivating and yawning as their colleagues share the Shs45bn between now and the end of the 11th Parliament. When you divide Shs45bn by 7 (which is the number of parties we have in Parliament), you get Shs6.4bn. This is what each of the 7 parties would ideally be entitled to.
With FDC and NUP opting to stay away and declining active IPOD participation, five compliant parties remain and these are NRM, UPC, DP, JEEMA and PPP. If they are to share the Shs45bn equally, they will each end up pocketing Shs9bn to be spent between now and voting day.
With NUP struggling to raise more than Shs1bn on the first day of their fundraising drive at Kavule (where many flocked anticipating to be prized with the party ticket), the IPOD-stricken Asuman Basalirwa (whose JEEMA recently shrunk even more when many top officials were expelled and went to join DF) is going to find himself chocking on Shs9bn. This makes him instantly richer than Bobi Wine who claims to have lifted him from the dust and obscurity by making him MP in 2018.
The two don’t see eye to eye anymore. Kavule considers Basalirwa a traitor because he works well with Speaker Anita Among who Mr. Wine considers to be an evil person. Refusal to fight and be antagonistic to her partly caused rifts between Mathias Mpuuga and Bobi Wine culminating into the former’s ejection from NUP.
Simon Byabakama, the EC Chairman, says that they have organized to financially support political parties in Parliament as they go into 2026 elections to the extent that their operational budget too is going to be funded by the government through the EC, besides the Shs45bn they are going to share out in instalments beginning with this very week.
If used properly, this money can enable and facilitate Asuman Basalirwa’s JEEMA to produce up to 10 MPs with each getting facilitated with a minimum of Shs500m towards their campaigns.
New parties like Erias Lukwago’s PFF and Mpuuga’s DF don’t qualify to share on the Shs45bn because, even when they have representation in Parliament, they aren’t members of IPOD which is the biggest prerequisite to qualify for funding from the EC. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
