Political party funding in Uganda

Much as these reports cannot be taken as the spark that lit the public debate over political party financing, they have done much to fuel and catalyse the public discussion of this issue, and its central and strategic significance in the young and still fragile multi party dispensation, established just before the 2006 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. To facilitate a meaningful dialogue among the diverse stakeholders on this issue, would, at the very minimum require two things: one, a

neutral forum with a less politically charged atmosphere, and two, a basic working

document outlining the main issues that need to be discussed and resolved.

The original working paper was therefore not a very academic document in the conventional sense of methodological rigour and conceptual analysis. It was outside its scope to explore what political parties are, and whether they are essential and indispensable. Neither was it targeting a thorough review the history of political parties in Uganda. There was no implicit or explicit assumption that finances are the only, or, for that matter, the main problem, parties in Uganda are facing currently. Given the time and resource constraints, the coverage of the survey was initially limited to residents of Kampala city, whose views and opinions may not fully represent the entire public opinion of Ugandans on various matters.