The European Union has formally communicated its intention to suspend its $5 million (Sh735,250,000) financial support for Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC.
EU said the move arises from concerns raised by several international Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) regarding the independence and transparency of ZEC during the 2023 harmonised elections.
"In response to these concerns and in adherence to responsible management of EU development cooperation funds, the EU has initiated a procedure to suspend its contribution to this project," EU said in a statement on Tuesday.
The project supporting ZEC is managed by UNDP and was scheduled to run until December 2024.
The EU contributes together with other donors to the project for the purposes of enhancing ZEC’s institutional and technical capabilities to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
The union said ZEC is currently under scrutiny due to the concerns raised about its lack of openness in running the August polls.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of NANU-PF was declared winner of the August 23 elections which the opposition termed as 'blatant and gigantic fraud'.
ZEC announced that Mnangagwa, 80, won a second term with 52.6 per cent of votes against 44 per cent for his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, 45, of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.
The announcement was made two days earlier than expected after voting was extended because of delays in the printing of ballot papers.
Chamisa said the opposition had not ratified the results, which he said had been “hastily assembled without proper verification”.
The EU underscored the critical need for electoral management agencies to serve as independent and transparent institutions in fulfilling their mandates to deliver credible polls.
"The EU remains open to the possibility of resuming its contribution to support efforts aiming at strengthening the electoral processes and bringing such processes closer to the regional and international standards that Zimbabwe has signed," the union said.
