The High Court in Kampala has dismissed an application by the National Unity Platform (NUP) seeking to halt the implementation of a directive that excluded the party from receiving government political funding for the last quarter of 2025.
Delivering his ruling via email on Wednesday, Justice Collins Acellam held that the application had been overtaken by events, noting that the Electoral Commission (EC) had already disbursed the funds to political parties that are members of the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD).
The dispute arose from an August 25, 2025 directive issued by Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Norbert Mao—who also serves as Democratic Party President and IPOD Chairperson—instructing the EC to release statutory political funding only to IPOD member parties. As a result, six parties benefited, while NUP was excluded.
The directive followed amendments to the Political Parties and Organizations Act, passed by Parliament in May 2025 and assented to by President Yoweri Museveni on June 15, 2025.
The amendments made IPOD membership a prerequisite for political parties represented in Parliament to access government funding and other public resources.
Through its Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP petitioned the court under the Judicature Act and the Civil Procedure Act, seeking an interim order to restrain the Attorney General and the EC from enforcing the directive pending determination of a main suit challenging both the directive and the amendments.
Rubongoya argued that denying NUP its quarterly allocation would cripple party operations and violate its right to fair administrative treatment.
He contended that IPOD had not yet been fully operationalized under the new law, rendering the minister’s directive unlawful. NUP’s legal team—Pace Advocates and Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates—further argued that the 2025 amendments could not be applied retroactively, emphasizing that before June 2025, IPOD existed merely as a voluntary dialogue platform without statutory authority.
They maintained that NUP’s membership in the National Consultative Forum (NCF), which is a legally recognized body for all registered political parties, was sufficient for eligibility to funding.
However, Senior State Attorney Johnson Natuhwera, representing the Attorney General, opposed the application, calling it “incompetent and overtaken by events.”
He argued that the minister acted within the law, since the amended Act expressly limits funding to active IPOD members, and that only the Constitutional Court could suspend a valid Act of Parliament.
Government evidence presented through an affidavit by Lawrence K. Sserwambala, Executive Director of IPOD, stated that NUP had repeatedly declined to join IPOD since 2021 despite several invitations.
He said the party’s exclusion was therefore self-inflicted, noting that IPOD remained open to NUP’s participation and that the party had been given a copy of the new IPOD Memorandum of Understanding in September 2025.
The Electoral Commission, represented by Hamidu Lugolobi, confirmed that by September 30, 2025, all funds for the July–September quarter had already been released to IPOD member parties as follows:
NRM (Shs8.5 billion), FDC (Shs756 million), UPC (Shs277 million), DP (Shs227 million), and JEEMA and PPP (Shs25 million each).
NUP, however, accused the EC of acting in bad faith, saying the disbursement was made prematurely to frustrate the court process and before a statutory instrument had been issued to operationalize the new IPOD structure.
In his ruling, Justice Acellam agreed with the government’s position, holding that while NUP still has a pending substantive suit, the High Court could not issue an interim order over an act that had already been completed.
“It is a well-established principle that courts do not issue futile orders,” he said, adding that “an interim order cannot be issued against a statutory disbursement that has already been effected.”
He further held that suspending the minister’s directive would effectively amount to suspending an Act of Parliament—a matter outside the jurisdiction of the High Court—and found that NUP had not shown any irreparable harm that could not be compensated by damages.
Justice Acellam consequently dismissed the application with costs to the Attorney General and the Electoral Commission, noting that constitutional questions raised by NUP would be addressed in the pending main suit.
The decision means NUP will not receive government funding for the July–September 2025 quarter, although its substantive challenge to the legality of the IPOD-based funding framework remains before the court.
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