Nairobi — Uganda's Parliamentary Commission will be in trouble if the government does not increase its budget, the chairperson of the House's budget committee, Beatrice Kiraso, has warned.

After next year's poll, Uganda will have an expanded parliament, which will, for the first time in 20 years, operate under a multiparty system.

"We are heading for a situation where the government will fund both government and opposition leaders in parliament," she said.

The National Assembly will expand to include 21 new legislators following the creation of 20 new districts and designation of the new constituency of Bugendera in Bundibugyo district. More funds are also needed for "capacity building" for Members of Parliament and staff who will be trained to operate in a multiparty environment.

But the immediate concern for parliament is the source of funds to expand chambers, create office space for the newly created districts and for the Shadow Cabinet that will be created under the multiparty system.

"We need funds immediately to expand the chambers and to cater for the main opposition party leader who will need both an office and staff. We also need money because the number of MPs will increase," said Bernard Eceru, parliament's public relations officer.

Mr Eceru was non-committal on the amount of money needed to run the eighth parliament, saying this will be decided by MPs themselves.

The Parliamentary Budget Office says it will need advice from engineers and other technical experts before seeking funds for the expansion. This is expected to be done by March next year. The Parliamentary Commission was last year provided with Ush43 billion ($23.5 million) to run the activities of the House. Even with this amount, there was a funding gap of Ush16.8 billion ($9.2 million).

Kiraso says with only 1.6 per cent of the national budget spent on parliament activities, Uganda still lags behind other African parliaments like Kenya's and Ghana's, which get 4 and 7 per cent respectively from the national budget.

The current parliament was built for 82 MPs but it accommodates 302 MPs. This has forced MPs to use small offices with up to six legislators sharing one. Each district is allocated one office but a district can have up to six constituencies and a woman representative.

Parliament may also be forced to hire space to accommodate the expanding parliament. But this could be partly solved if the president's office, which was asked to vacate the premises five years ago, complies.

National Assembly officials said they had asked all the institutions occupying offices at Parliament Buildings to leave five years ago but the president's office has refused to leave.

The Japanese government has pledged to support the strengthening of parliament by upgrading the skills of MPs. The US embassy has also reportedly promised to install building accessibility ramps and promote sign language to ensure full participation of people with disabilities. Mr Eceru said other foreign missions will be approached.