Kampala — The six presidential candidates nominated for the 2006 elections will each get sh45m as facilitation from the Electoral Commission (EC).

Sources in the EC said each candidate will also be given a pick-up truck for the police security guards.

In the past elections, the EC gave candidates sh20m, a four-wheel drive Land Cruiser and a pick-up truck for escorts.

During a briefing of representatives of the 39 political parties and independent candidates at the EC headquarters in Kampala before nominations started on Wednesday, some of the aspirants demanded to get cash other than the high-fuel consumption Toyota Land-cruisers.

The EC chairman, Eng. Dr Badru Kiggundu, was cagey about the facilitation.

"According to the law, we are supposed to give each one sh20m and any other facilitation approved by parliament. It's possible it could be vehicles or cash. But we shall settle that in our meeting with them on Monday," Kiggundu said after nominations closed on Thursday.

The EC secretary, Sam Rwakoojo, could not be reached for a comment. He was reportedly locked in a long-day meeting.

Kiggundu said campaigns began as soon as nominations closed and that each candidate had a day per-district to campaign. He said the EC would coordinate the campaign programmes to ensure that there were no clashes and collisions.

He declined to state the election date but said the law gives him two weeks after the end of nominations within which he gazettes the date.

He appealed to candidates and their supporters to be tolerant to each other in order to avoid violence. He welcomed the creation of a special squad by government to counter election violence.

Asked about army officers campaigning for particular candidates, Kiggundu said, "They should not come out and campaign unless they are designated campaign agents and not in uniform."

He could not say how far the army participation could go. "It is their constitutional role is to defend the people of Uganda and to protect its territorial integrity, and I don't know where their territory ends," he said.

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