Hon. Nathaniel Oyet, the First Deputy Speaker of the parliament. (Photo: Kafuki Jada/Eye Radio).

The SPLM In Opposition Parliamentary Caucus is urging the Minister of Finance and Planning to table a supplementary budget for the timely conduct of the upcoming general elections.

The lawmakers’ call comes after the Presidency on Friday asked the peace parties to convene parliamentary caucus meetings to state their position on the 2.2 trillion-pound fiscal budget for the year 2023/2024.

The Presidency had pleaded with the peace parties to unite and pass the budget that is still under the scrutiny of the national legislature.

Reacting to the call, SPLM-IO lawmakers said they held a consultative meeting on Saturday and observed that the proposed national budget will not address pending tasks of the peace process.

They cited the outstanding issues such as “the security arrangements, repatriation and resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons, population census, the permanent constitution-making and transitional justice processes as well as the process of national elections by the end of next year.

The peace partners warn that failure to allocate resources for the implementation of the critical tasks will affect the roadmap including the conduction of elections by December next year.

They argue that the budget does not reflect its theme to implement and consolidate the peace agreement, nor the President’s objective to achieve peace and stability to pave the way for transparent, fair, free, and credible elections.

In Friday’s meeting, the Presidency expressed commitment to satisfactory salaries for civil servants, military and organized forces.

Regarding this, the SPLM-IO MPs say, “the proposed 400 percent increment is inadequate as it does not cope with the current market process.”

However, the lawmakers approved the increment of salaries and wages beyond the 400 percent they say is contained in the second reading of the fiscal budget.