Government has tabled new regulations in Parliament to operationalise the Political Parties Amendment Act 2025, institutionalising the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) within the National Consultative Forum and introducing financial sanctions in place of expulsion for errant political parties.
The regulations, presented by Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Nobert Mao, outline fresh guidelines on party financing, compliance, and participation in inter-party dialogue.
The draft has been referred to the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee for scrutiny.
While introducing the framework, Minister Mao emphasised that the new dispensation aims to strengthen discipline and accountability without excluding any party from the IPOD platform.
“Any sanctions to a political party shall be on their share of the public funds as no party shall be expelled from the platform,” Mao stated, noting that the reforms are designed to promote dialogue rather than division.
He further explained that parties operating under the institutionalised IPOD arrangement will no longer face the ultimate penalty of expulsion, but may instead lose access to public funding if found in breach of the regulations.
“The parties under IPOD shall not face any threats of expulsion from the platform but risk financial sanctions on what is due to them from the Electoral Commission,” Mao elaborated.
The Minister was also tasked to address concerns surrounding the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the alleged withholding of its public funding prior to the regulations taking effect.
In an interview, Mao clarified that NUP does not owe the Electoral Commission any funds under the IPOD framework, and that access to financing will depend strictly on membership and participation.
“NUP does not owe the Electoral Commission any money under the IPOD arrangement. A party only gets money where it has membership,” Mao reiterated, underscoring the principle of membership-based funding as central to the new framework.
The regulations are expected to bring greater stability and transparency to Uganda’s inter-party engagements by making participation in the newly institutionalised IPOD a statutory condition for accessing government funding.
The tabling of the regulations represents a major milestone in the implementation of the Political Parties Amendment Act 2025, which formally entrenched IPOD within Uganda’s political structure as a recognised forum for structured dialogue among registered political parties.