Parliamentary Report On The Uganda Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016
Parliamentary Report On The Uganda Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016
Parliamentary Report On The Uganda Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016
PARLIAMENT OF UGANDA
The Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was read for the first time on 21st
December, 2016 by the Minister of Local Government. It was referred to the
Committee on Public Service and Local Government in accordance with Rule 118
(1) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament of Uganda. The Committee examined
the Bill and now presents its report.
1. To amend the Local Government Act, Cap 243 to reduce the time for the
display of the voters' roll from 21 (twenty one) days to 2 (two) days for
elections of village and parish councils.
n. To provide for the Electoral Commission to determine objections arising
from the display of the voters' roll in accordance with section 168B of the
Local Governments Act.
iii. To reduce the time provided for campaigns of village and parish councils
from at least 7 (seven) days to at least 1 (one) day.
iv. To provide for other related matters.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
(b) Held a public hearing and received submissions from the following;
Under decentralisation, powers and functions over service delivery were devolved
to local governments and local administrative units. The system provides for a
clear line of responsibility over service delivery and administration from the
village to the district.
The Local Councils (LCs) and their executive committees at the village and parish
level are the lowest points of service delivery and the pivot of all government
operations. According to sections 48 and 49 of the Local Governments Act
LCs are responsible for the followin
i. The local government administrative units are the level of government
closest to the population - they are involved in day to day governance of
their areas of jurisdiction;
ii. Initiating development plans - the decentralization planning process
begins at the village and parish level;
iii. Monitoring government programs - the LCs are the link between
Government and communities. They provide reports and information on
progress of Government projects and programmes in their areas;
1v. Strengthening security, law and order- community policing, maintenance
of law and order requires active LCs which command respect by the
population;
v. Community mobilization- LCs are necessary for organizing and mobilizing
community members to participate in government programs;
vi. Vetting and verification of citizenship - LCs play an important role of
recommending residents for official documents and recruitment;
vii. Local administration of justice- particularly by the local council courts;
viii. Initiating local self-help projects- including mobilizing local resources for
community based development schemes.
During the public hearing, the Committee was informed that delay in holding LC
elections resulted in serious challenges, including:
1. Poor governance; because the LCs lack the mandate of the people, they
have become too weak to effectively monitor government programs, fight
corruption and provide good governance of their areas. Some LCs no longer
hold any meetings, they no longer keep any records and are not functional.
The Executive Committees have turned into a one-man show, thereby
undermining the democracy envisaged under decentralization.
ii. Increased insecurity and lawlessness; the LCs are part of the mechanism
to enforce security, law and order in society. Absence of duly elected LC
is partly responsible for the breakdown in law and order. Some LCs have
become part of the problem of insecurity, colluding with wrong elements.
iii. Legality of decisions taken by LC has been under constant threat of
litigation.
iv. Absence of these structures has jeopardized the local administration of
justice since local councils assist to adjudicate certain cases at that level.
Their absence may be one of the causes of the increased backlog of cases
in courts of law.
v. There is lack of accountability and scrutiny over funds collected like
permits, fines, fees, stamp charges, etc ... In some cases, especially urban
areas, LCs have imposed illegal taxes of up to lOo/a on land transactions
and have continued to extort money from the citizens who need letters of
recommendation from the local leaders.
Observations:
Recommendation 1.0
1.1 Election of all LCs should always be part and parcel of the national
elections calendar. They should be gazetted together with other
elections and they should be held regularly.
1.2 Government should make the necessary arrangements to ensure
that the LCs hold regular meetings, keep records and become fully
functional.
1.3 The Ministry of Local Government should take necessary measure
to stop illegal activities and illegal taxes imposed by LCs on land
transactions and other services.
4.2 Multi-party dispensation and the LC elections
The last elections of LCs were conducted in 200 1 under the Movement system of
individual merit. In 2006, the country returned to the multi-party dispensation.
The Electoral Commission attempted to organize and conduct elections of LCs
and issued guidelines for the elections. These were challenged in the
Constitutional Court by Retired Major Rubaramira Ruranga (Ref: Constitutional
Petition No 21 of 2006). He argued that it was unconstitutional to hold elections
for the LCs under a Movement system after the country had shifted to the multi-
party system. Court ruled in his favour and ordered that the law be amended to
cater for the multiparty dispensation during elections of the local councils.
The effect of the Court ruling in this case is that in a multi-party democracy,
which this country has embraced, it is not the individual's merits or demerits
that are important. It is rather the programmes of the party which the candidate
represents that are important. They are the ones upon which the electorate base
their decision to choose a candidate to vote for. Therefore candidates should be
nominated by the parties (or they should stand as independent candidates) and
they should be given adequate time to fairly present to the electorate their
parties' programmes.
Observations:
t The Committee observes that the court ruling in the Rubaramira case is
important and must be given due attention. Government is obliged to
ensure that as long as the country is under the multi-party system, the
elections of LCs and other elections must meet the requirements of this
arrangement.
n. This being election at village level, it is assumed that the candidates,
both flag bearers of the different parties and independent candidates,
are well known by the voters.
Recommendation 2.0
The Committee learnt that the mode of elections by lining up, drew strong
concerns from some members of the general public and organizations. In order
to cut costs, some members of the public proposed that people be allowed to use
simple paper slips or exercise books as ballot papers.
The following were given as the main disadvantages of the lining up method:
The following were given as the main advantages of the lining up method:
1. It is cost effective, cheap and affordable.
ii. It minimizes invalid votes because all voters line up and are counted.
iii. It is suitable for voters who are illiterate because there is no need for the
voters to read or write anything.
iv. It is transparent, easy to organize; counting of votes and declaration of
results is done there and then, hence results in less petitions and
complaints.
v. It minimizes personal conflict because, unlike the past elections, this
year's LC elections will be on the basis of political parties and their
ideologies and programmes, not individual personal merit.
vi. It minimizes voter bribery because voters fear to be followed by candidates
in case they take a bribe from a particular candidate and yet are seen
voting another candidate.
vii. It takes a short time as voting is done at the same time and venue by all
voters.
Observations:
t The mode of elections of lining up is already provided for in the law and
permitted by the Constitution. It has ever been successfully used in this
country.
u. Reverting to the secret ballot method would be costly and would mean
postponing the elections to a much future date. The current budgetary
constraints cannot be ignored or underplayed.
ut This is a national election and only the Electoral Commission is mandated
to organize and conduct the elections, including providing materials to use
as ballot papers. Use of locally generated, non-serialized and non-uniform
materials would open up the election to costly irregularities.
lV. The use of local administration staff as electoral officials was prohibited by
the Constitutional court in the Rubaramira case.
v. Continued failure to hold LC elections, poses constitutional and goveman
challenges.
Recommendation 3.0
The Committee found that the women Council elections just like the Local
Council elections have not been held in a long time, in this case since in May
2003. The absence of dully elected women councils is contrary to the
Constitutional provision of affirmative action. It also means that the issues of
domestic violence, defilement, rape, child neglect, women empowerment and
other gender concerns have not been fully attended to due to lack of effective
women representation at lower levels. Full democratic decentralization requires
gender balance and redressing issues of marginalization.
The Committee learnt that the budget earlier ear marked for LC elections was
inadequate to carry out women elections alongside local council elections.
Observations:
Recommendation 4.0
The KCCA Act 2010, under sections 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 provides for division
urban councils, ward urban councils, village urban councils and street
committees. However, the KCCA Act does not stipulate how the members of these
councils should be elected. It should also be noted that the law does not clearly
define the Street Committees, as some 'streets' are just roads and others paths,
while some other 'streets' cut across several villages.
Observations:
Recommendation 5.0
5.1 Elections should be held for KCCA ward councils and urban village
councils at the same time as the election of LCs for the rest of the
country.
5.2 The Minister in charge of KCCA should expedite the necessary
amendments of the KCCA Act to pave the way for election of the
street committees of Kampala.
Observations:
Recommendation 6.0
4. 7 Registration of voters
The Committee was informed that it was necessary for the Electoral Commission
to carry out fresh registration of voters for each village. The Commission
explained that the register of voters used in the previous national elections was
not suitable for the LC elections because that register was for polling stations
that were different from those of the LC elections. Furthermore in the case of LC
elections, people are expected to register in the areas where they reside and
where they are willing to be registered as members of those village councils. The
Commission agreed with the proposal in the Bill to reduce the time of display of
the voters' register, so as to save on cost and time and confirmed to the
Committee that they had the capacity to settle disputes arising from anomalies
on the voters' register and produce an updated voters' register promptly.
On the number of villages and parishes in which the voters are to be registered,
the Commission pointed out that there were additional administrative units
which were created after August 2016, as shown in the table below:
Observations:
Recommendation 7.0
The Committee found out that there was inadequate funding for local council
elections. Although the Local Governments Act was amended several times in
order to streamline the management and functions of local government and
administrative units, the challenge of financing the local council I and II elections
remained.
In 2010 Government found that the cost of organizing and holding the LC
elections was about shs.SOS bn. This was not manageable given the limited
resource envelope of the country. Government introduced amendments of the
Local Governments Act which were passed by Parliament in 2012. That
amendment removed the need to transmit hardcopy registers to all parties and
candidates, among others. The cost was reduced to about shs.42bn, which
Government argued was still too high. In 2015, Government introduced further
amendments to the law, specifically requiring elections of LCs to be held by the
lining up method. Parliament approved the amendments. This resulted into a
significant reduction of the cost of conducting village and parish level elections
to about shs.37.5bn, according to the Electoral Commission.
In view of the above and considering the need to have these elections conducted
in the shortest possible time, Government deemed it necessary to effect another
amendment of the Local Governments Act in December 2016 to further remove
and/ or reduce some cost centers. Government submitted a certificate offinancfal
implications, committing shs.10bn for the exercise. The Electoral Commission
made it clear that shs 1 Obn would only cater for an election exercise of all
activities conducted on one single day, not on separate days as provided in the
Bill. During the Committee's consultations with the relevant Ministries,
Government confirmed the availability of funds to conduct all Local Council
elections, as long as Parliament passed the necessary amendments and gave the
required legal framework.
Observations:
l. The initial budget of Shs. 505bn, which was for voting by secret ballot
was excessive. The need to hold elections must be balanced with the
resources available so as to ensure affordability of the elections.
ii. Much as steps have been taken to reduce the budget, there is a minimum
level of resources that should be availed to the Electoral Commission so
as to ensure fair and credible elections.
Recommendation 8.0:
The Committee observes that there are a number of considerations which must be
taken into account in order to organize and manage a successful election. These
include:
Anxiety of the population to have new leaders with mandate of the electorate
cannot be overstretched, given the long time the country has taken without
dully elected LCs.
There is need for Parliament to go through all steps in its procedures to pass
the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2016 into law.
Time for Presidential assent to the Bill.
Coherent preparatory activities by the Electoral Commission for the LC
elections.
Providing for women council elections to run concurrently with the LC
elections.
Adequate time for civic education and voter education.
Sufficient time for the political parties to organize their programmes and
choose their flag bearers for a healthy competitive election.
Sufficient time for those wishing to stand as independent candidates to
participate fully in all electoral activities.
Adequate time for registration of voters, display of voters' roll, nomination of
candidates, campaigns, actual voting and announcing results.
Recommendation 9.0:
Since its enactment in 1997, the Local Governments Act has been amended
twelve (12) times in a bid to streamline management of local governments and
administrative units and to accommodate emerging policy changes. Some of the
original amendments were subsequently amended and some of these
amendments were later reversed by other amendments. At the moment, the Act
is difficult to make reference to and is extremely tedious to read and use.
Recommendation 10.0
There are a number of new Districts, Municipalities, Town councils and Sub-
counties which started operating with effect from July 2016. These require
councils and committees for efficient delivery of services and management. The
youth councils in the new local governments and representatives of the workers
at district and other local government levels too were not elected. There are gaps
in some councils at district and lower levels which need to be filled.
Recommendation 11.0
~
6.0 CONCLUSION
The Committee recommends that Parliament considers and approves this report
and that the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016 be passed into law.
17
SIGNATURE SHEET FOR THE REPORT OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016
18
A liST OF GENERAL PUBliC WHO APPEARED FOR PUBLIC HEARING ON 30TH DECEMBER 2016
No Names Organisation
1 Mr. Kaija Emmanuel Student
Page 1 of 2
~~ .I 35,000,000
GRAND TOTAL
1.0 Payment for Village and Parish Register Display of the Voters Register 1,313,620,000
2.0 Payments for Nomination Officials 656,810,000
Sub Total 1,970,430,000
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