The Electoral Commission (EC) last year asked for Shs37.5 billion to enable it conduct Local Council (LC) 1 and 2 elections that were last held during the election round of 2001.
According to the Commission, the money is needed to conduct elections in over 57,842 villages in the country, basing on the EC 2016 voter roadmap. These villages constitute 7,431 parishes in 1,403 sub counties.
However, it appears the elections are likely to be delayed again, at least for a couple of more months or even years, after government announced it can only raise Shs10billion for the exercise, leaving a shortfall of over Shs27 billion.
And even this would come after the ‘necessary amendments’ are in place, the Minister for Finance in charge of General Duties David Bahati said today, while appearing before the parliamentary local government committee.
“As the Minister of Local Government has said, we have come so far to look back at this process. If the process is concluded, if all the necessary amendments are put in place, we shall look for the necessary funds to implement what the people’s representatives will have decided,” Bahati said.
Government last year set January 2017 as the deadline to hold the two bottom grassroots elections.
