Uganda: Private Member presents Bill to Regulate Political Party Funding
Hon. Nakut had, on Tuesday, 13 May 2025 , moved a motion under Rules 127 and 128 of the Rules of Procedure seeking leave to introduce the Private Member's Bill, which seeks to amend the Political Parties and Organizations Act, Cap. 178.
The proposed legislation aims to formalize two organs within the National Consultative Forum: the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) and a Forum for Non-Represented Political Parties and Organizations. It also seeks to define IPOD's functions and streamline the criteria for public funding of political parties and organizations.
Currently, the Act provides government funding to political parties represented in Parliament under Section 14. However, Nakut argued that the law does not require these parties to uphold democratic values such as tolerance, dialogue, and peaceful co-existence as conditions for accessing public resources.
'To strengthen the National Consultative Forum, we must establish organs that reflect the interests of both represented and non-represented political parties,' she stated.
'Promoting transparency, accountability, and equitable access to public funding requires that parties adhere to democratic principles before receiving public resources,' she said.
According to the Bill's objective, the amendment would restrict government funding and access to other public resources to only those political parties and organizations that are members of the National Consultative Forum.
The Bill prescribes functions of IPOD as:
Promoting inter-party dialogue to strengthen democratic governance,
Facilitating communication among political parties represented in Parliament,
Advising government on policy matters and fostering a democratic environment, and;
Providing a neutral platform for engagement among parties of differing ideologies.
The Bill proposes that only political parties and organizations that choose to join IPOD be eligible for government funding and public resources.
Speaker Among referred the Bill to the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for further scrutiny.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Zawya
4 days ago
- Zawya
British high commissioner pays courtesy call on Minister of Foreign Affairs
AFRICA The Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Odongo Abubakhar held a meeting with H.E Lisa Chesney, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Uganda at the Ministry Headquarters in Kampala. The meeting focused at bilateral issues of mutual interest between the two governments, including peace and security developments in the Great Lakes region. They also discussed Uganda's level of preparedness for the upcoming 2026 general elections Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Republic of Uganda - Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Disclaimer: The contents of this press release was provided from an external third party provider. This website is not responsible for, and does not control, such external content. This content is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis and has not been edited in any way. Neither this website nor our affiliates guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions expressed in this press release. The press release is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Neither this website nor our affiliates shall be liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the content, or for any actions taken by you in reliance thereon. You expressly agree that your use of the information within this article is at your sole risk. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this website, its parent company, its subsidiaries, its affiliates and the respective shareholders, directors, officers, employees, agents, advertisers, content providers and licensors will not be liable (jointly or severally) to you for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, incidental, punitive or exemplary damages, including without limitation, lost profits, lost savings and lost revenues, whether in negligence, tort, contract or any other theory of liability, even if the parties have been advised of the possibility or could have foreseen any such damages. © ZAWYA 2025
Zawya
5 days ago
- Zawya
Tanzania commits to allow sea access to landlocked neighbours
Tanzania this week assured landlocked neighbours of unfettered sea access for their commerce, adding its voice to calls for sea routes, a point that has sometimes been contentious in the region. Prof Godius Kyaharara, Permanent Secretary in Tanzania's Transport ministry, told a United Nations conference on August 6 that Dodoma was making good progress in removing barriers on landlocked East African Community (EAC) member states to access the Indian Ocean in the spirit of regional integration. He said Tanzania has already taken measures such as improving operational efficiency at the port of Dar es Salaam, its main Indian Ocean gateway, was linking its ongoing standard gauge railway (SGR) project with landlocked EAC neighbours, and embraced the bloc's one-stop border post (OSBP) policy to facilitate faster cargo trade movements across the region. In international law, coastal states are supposed to facilitate access to the sea for landlocked countries for commerce. However, non-tariff barriers and personal misunderstanding between leaders often affect the smooth flow of this access. Prof Kyaharara's remarks at the third UN conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) in Awaza, Turkmenistan, came on the back of a renewed push by the leaders of Uganda and Ethiopia to address the difficulties they face in gaining direct sea access to boost the economies of their countries. Speaking in Nairobi on July 30, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni described Africa as an 'economically fragmented' continent, where landlocked countries lacking direct access to the sea for trade purposes rarely treat it as a priority problem.'People in countries such as Uganda appear to be more concerned with minor things like who is president or who will be president, (but) whoever is president will face the same problem (of sea access),' Museveni told a media briefing after a State House meeting with his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto.'These are the issues that Mr Ruto and I have been discussing. What sort of arrangement is this where you have the sitting room in one country, the bedroom in another country and the kitchen in yet another country?' Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also recently reiterated his government's commitment to finding ways to gain direct access to the Red Sea in a peaceful manner, saying the country's 120 million people have been grappling with growing economic challenges for at least three decades due to the absence of a seaport.'Glaring injustices have been committed against Ethiopia in violation of international frameworks on world landlocked countries, and it is an issue that requires a swift solution,' Dr Abiy said in Addis Ababa on June 9. He said Ethiopia's quest for sea access was 'fair and legitimate' and would continue to be pursued 'peacefully, legally and through dialogue until the goal is met.'Ethiopia has a long history of conflict with both Eritrea and Djibouti regarding access to the Red Sea, the major gateway to trade markets in the Middle East and Europe, as well as Somalia which is its closest route to the Indian Ocean. On Wednesday, Prof Kyaharara reaffirmed Tanzania's support for the implementation of the 10-year Awaza Programme of Action which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2024 for the benefit of 32 LLDCs located in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. He called on other countries with sea access which are aligned to the program to honour their commitments to it by investing in more related projects to improve infrastructure, build capacity, and address non-tariff barriers. The Awaza PoA is a follow-up to the 2014–2024 Vienna Programme of Action to support LLDCs in such areas as trade facilitation, structural transformation, transport connectivity, technology, climate resilience, and mobilising international support. The aim is to align national-level actions, regional integration efforts and global policy frameworks to place LLDCs on a more dynamic path to sustainable development while safeguarding them against future shocks and disasters. Prof Kyaharara said many of Tanzania's projects under the Awaza program banner were being implemented through bilateral cooperation agreements with landlocked neighbours such as Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure shared benefits in the name of regional integration. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Khaleej Times
5 days ago
- Khaleej Times
Rahul Gandhi alleges massive 'vote theft', accuses poll body of colluding with BJP
Congress leader and India's Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday accused the country's Election Commission of enabling large-scale voter fraud to favour the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), calling it a 'crime against democracy.' At a press conference in Indira Bhawan in New Delhi, Gandhi alleged that millions of fake voters were added in key states, voter lists were manipulated, and critical data was withheld by the Election Commission. He said his party had uncovered what he described as a massive 'vote theft,' and accused the poll body of colluding with the ruling party by denying access to electronic voter lists and erasing CCTV footage from polling stations. 'This is a full-blown attack on our democratic system,' Gandhi said, taking the gathering through a PowerPoint presentation on a giant screen, dressed in his favourite T-shirt. 'The Election Commission should be protecting democracy, not destroying it." Gandhi said the Congress party's internal research found over 100,000 irregular or duplicate votes in a single constituency, Mahadevapura, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The irregularities, he claimed, were enough to influence the final result in Bangalore Central. According to Gandhi, the alleged vote theft in that constituency included tens of thousands of entries with fake addresses, voters registered in bulk under single homes, invalid photographs, and improper use of registration forms meant for new voters. He also cited similar concerns in state of Maharashtra, where he claimed that nearly four million new voters were mysteriously added in just five months , more than what was recorded in the previous five years combined. 'We asked for machine-readable voter lists. They refused to give them. That alone tells you something is being hidden,' he said. In Karnataka, Gandhi said internal projections had indicated Congress would win 16 seats, but the party ended up with only nine. He pointed to a gap of just over 114,000 votes in Mahadevapura, alleging that 100,250 of those votes were fraudulent, a figure based on what he called detailed analysis conducted over six months. 'This entire process is being sabotaged. If the EC had given us the proper data, we could have analysed it in 30 seconds. Instead, they gave us scanned copies that can't even be read by a computer,' he said, accusing the Commission of deliberately making scrutiny impossible. He described the situation as an 'atom bomb' against free elections and warned that once the Opposition comes to power, those responsible, including polling personnel, would be held accountable. Gandhi's remarks come ahead of a planned rally in Bengaluru on Friday. He and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge are expected to lead a protest march at Freedom Park, calling it a fight to protect voter rights. He also made a direct appeal to India's judiciary to intervene. 'We are presenting concrete evidence. The courts must take this seriously. The Election Commission cannot be allowed to operate with impunity.' While the Congress party has filed complaints with the poll body, Gandhi said there has been no response. The Election Commission has not yet issued a statement addressing the allegations. The charges come amid growing political tensions in India, where the recent elections saw the BJP return to power but with a reduced majority. Gandhi's campaign to challenge the legitimacy of some results could fuel further scrutiny of India's electoral process in the coming months.
