Harare (New Ziana) – The European Union (EU) said on Wednesday it had withdrawn its three-year financial support to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), worth US$5 million, over its concerns regarding the running and management of last month’s elections in the country.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was re-elected, and his ruling Zanu PF party also won majority seats in both houses of parliament, and local councils countrywide.
In the election, the EU was heavily linked to the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, with reports indicating the European bloc secretly provided funding for the election to the latter.
In a statement, the EU said it will withdraw funding from ZEC, citing alleged lack of transparency and independence of the electoral body.
It said its decision was based on an adverse report on the August 23 polls by its election observers, and a few other groups, mainly Western, that witnessed the polls.
They cited a litany of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the election, which the government and ZEC dismissed as either outside their mandate or based on hear-say from the opposition.
“The European Union (EU) has formally communicated its intention to suspend its 5 million USD financial support for the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) to both the Ministry of Finance and Investment Promotion and ZEC,” the EU said.
“The project supporting ZEC, which is managed by UNDP and scheduled to run until December 2024, is currently under scrutiny due to concerns raised by several international Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) regarding the independence and transparency of ZEC during the 2023 harmonised elections,” it said.
“Preliminary statements from multiple EOMs, including the EU EOM, have raised concerns about ZEC’s management of the electoral process, particularly regarding its independence and transparency.”
The EU co-funds, together with other donors, a project aimed at enhancing the institutional and technical capacity of ZEC, through the United Nations Development Programme.
“The EU firmly underscores the critical importance of electoral management bodies serving as independent and transparent institutions in fulfilling their mandates to deliver credible and inclusive electoral processes that enjoy the trust of citizens. The EU remains open to the possibility of resuming its contribution to support efforts aiming at strengthening the electoral processes and bring such processes closer to the regional and international standards that Zimbabwe has signed,” it said.
New Ziana
