Museveni spent Shs773b on 2016 campaign - report

Kurzweil · 2016-07-11T11:20:15+00:00

President Museveni is estimated to have spent a minimum of $231m (Shs773b) to secure a fifth elective term in office, a report by activists who tracked the money that was poured into the 2016 campaigns, has revealed. Mr Museveni’s spending was followed by the Go Forward’s Amama Mbabazi, who is estimated to have used $19.9m (Shs66b) to market his first-time bid for the presidency. FDC flag bearer Kizza Besigye, who was the runner-up in the election, is estimated to have used $4.5m (Shs15b) to traverse the 112 districts.Dr Besigye collected Shs97m from his supporters. The other five candidates are estimated to have spent less than a billion shillings each. Prof Venansious Baryamureeba $0.46m (Shs1.5b), Benon Biraaro $0.26m (Shs871m), Abed Bwanika $0.24(Shs841m), Joseph Mabirizi $ 0.13m (Shs435m) and Maureen Kyalya $ 0.02m (Shs67m). This money does not include the nomination fees paid to the Electoral Commission. The report by Alliance for Campaign Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), a loose coalition of CSO activists, is based on data that was collected from a sample of 16 districts throughout the three-month campaign period and extrapolated to cover all 112 districts in the country. The sampled districts were; Kampala, Luweero, Masaka, Iganga, Nwoya, Hoima, Kanungu, Kabarole, Apac, Bushenyi, Kabale, Kabarole, Lira, Katakwi, Moroto and Arua. ACFIM estimates that presidential candidates spent a combined total of at least Shs857b to run their campaigns, excluding money that was spent at national level to for instance, convening delegates’ conferences and holding party primaries. The report notes that spending on selected campaign material such as branded paraphernalia accounted for the biggest chunk of presidential candidates’ expenditure. The report estimates that Shs28b was spent on campaign materials, Shs23b for donations and fundraising and Shs16b for transport expenses in the 16 districts surveyed. Mr Museveni is estimated to have spent Shs25b on campaign materials such as branded T-Shirts, fliers, caps and bandanas while Mr Mbabazi spent Shs1.4b on the same venture. Dr Besigye is estimated to have spent Shs662m on such campaign materials. But campaign teams of the three leading candidates all reacted to the report’s findings with skepticism, insisting that the figures are an exaggeration. NRM deputy secretary general Richard Todwong dismissed the report’s findings as “nonsense and total rubbish”, sayin Source: Daily Monitor

Thread starter Kurzweil
Start date Jul 11, 2016

Kurzweil

JF-Expert Member

Jul 11, 2016

Bavaria

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