Museveni Spent Shs50b On Re-Election
The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
April 26, 2006
By Peter Nyanzi & Evelyn Lirri
KampalaTHE National Resistance Movement spent about Shs50 billion on President Yoweri Museveni's re-election last February, Mr Teddy Sseezi Cheeye has said.Cheeye, who is the Director of Economic Affairs and Monitoring in the Office of the President, told a workshop on the media coverage of the general elections yesterday that the "commercialization of politics" was leading to "lower returns" in terms of votes."In 1996, NRM spent about Shs8b and got over 80 percent (of the votes). In 2001, NRM used Shs21b and got 70 percent and in 2006 NRM used about Shs50b and got 60 percent," Cheeye told participants at Hotel Africana."Although there is an increase of money in every new general elections, the money goes to the same small clique of a privileged few, resulting in negligible trickle down effect, thus the diminishing base of the NRM supporters."Shs50b is enough to finance the (Shs10b) budget of the Mulago Hospital Complex for about five years and all the hospitals in the country for two years.NRM's main rival, the opposition Forum for Democratic Change said yesterday they spent about Shs 740 million."We spent about Shs 650 million with debts of about Shs 90million which brings the total to slightly below Shs740million," FDC Spokesman Mr Wafula Oguttu told Daily Monitor by telephone yesterday. The Democratic Party spokesperson Betty Nambooze said;"We have nothing to talk about because our candidates sponsored themselves right from the president down to the lowest level. They received very little from the party."When contacted for a comment yesterday, the chairman of the party's electoral commission, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, declined to comment on the figure of Shs50b given by Museveni's economic director.He referred Daily Monitor to the party treasurer Ndawula-Kawesi. Kaweesi could neither confirm nor deny the figure but said more money would be spent during Mr Museveni's swearing in ceremonies next month."We are not yet able to tell the final figure because the elections are still going on," he said by telephone yesterday, referring to the ongoing youth, women and people with disability elections at the lower councils. "The whole process of the Presidential elections will not be complete until our candidate is sworn in on May 12."Asked what the sources of the money were, Kaweesi said the funds were not from the Treasury but were raised by supporters and well-wishers. "I have the figures but I cannot disclose them now. We shall let you know at the right time," he said.Daily Monitor has learnt that though by law returns of how campaign funds were got and spent were supposed to have been sent to the electoral Commission in 30 days after the elections, no party had complied.Electoral Commission secretary Sam Rwakoojo yesterday said the commission was planning to write to the various political parties "to remind them.""It is an anomaly that we need to remind them about," he said. "But we also appreciate the fact that the legal requirement of thirty days is impracticable in that aspect."Kaweesi, also MP for Kiboga West, admitted that the party was still heavily indebted but that the accountability of sources of its funds would be sent to the EC after the conclusion of all the elections.The Electoral Commission had budgeted for Shs74b to conduct the elections but the government slashed it to Shs64 b because of the "limited resources."NRM deputy spokesman Ofwono Opondo laughed off the Shs50 billion claim but defended the hefty expenditure by his party in the elections, saying it was "well deserved.""We do not account to the Daily Monitor," he said when asked if he had an idea of how much money the campaign had cost. "But whatever amount we spent was well deserved."At the workshop, which was organized by the Uganda Media Women's Association (Umwa), Forum for Women in Democracy (Fowode) and the Anti corruption Coalition Unit (Accu), Cheeye criticized the media for not raising "critical issues" such as the loss of popularity for the NRM, which he said was not serving the purposes of democracy."Ugandans are not achieving the very critical deliverable of democracy: the ability of the ruled to hold the rulers accountable, and similarly the political commitments of the rulers to make accountability and to be responsive to the ruled," he said, adding that the situation could never be attained in Uganda.He said the NRM government had performed poorly in the last ten years since 1996 as compared to the first ten when President Museveni ruled before holding elections, because it was forced to adopt "opportunistic politics of making flowery promises and of compromising positive economic and environmental policies just because it wanted to appease a section of the peasants in order to get votes."Cheeye amused participants when he criticized officials at State House, whom he referred to as "uninformed sycophants who were busy misinforming the President."UMWA said the media coverage of the elections left a lot to be desired. The study analyzed the way Daily Monitor, The New Vision and Orumuri covered the elections between February 1 and February 22. It also analyzed the broadcast media including UBC radio, Radio Simba, Radio West, WBS and UBC TV over the same period.The study assessed the portrayal of candidates in light of the traditional roles of the media, professional values of objectivity, impartiality, balance, truth and public interest covered.A total of 1,265 articles and programmes were analyzed during the study.According to the study findings presented by Ms Sarah Sseggane, stories about candidate Museveni dominated in The New Vision, Orumuri, UBC TV and radio and Radio West while FDC President Kizza Besigye dominated WBS and Daily Monitor."Most stories on Museveni were more positive than negative compared to the other candidates," Sseggane said. "Miria Obote had more negative stories than positive in comparison to other candidates."ACCU Advocacy and Capacity Building officer Ms Lillian Muyomba decried the "massive vote buying engineered by all parties."
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