Zimbabwe Government's Lack Of Cooperation Key Factor In ZEC Funding Withdrawal - EU
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) has revealed that the EU’s decision to withdraw funding from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was due to the Zimbabwean authorities’ lack of cooperation during the electoral period, reported CITE.
In September, the EU Embassy in Harare announced that Brussels would withdraw US$5 million in financial support from ZEC because of a lack of independence and transparency in conducting the August 2023 Harmonised Elections.
Responding to questions about whether the EU will refund Zimbabwe soon after presenting the EU EOM’s final report on Zimbabwe’s 2023 Harmonised elections from Brussels online on Friday, Chief Observer -Fabio Massimo Castaldo said:
Well, let me say that the decision of freezing the financial cooperation and the technical cooperation was taken by the EU delegation on the ground, according to the fact that as I said, there was a lack of cooperation by the competent authorities…
At this point, I cannot tell you if some moment there will be a decision again to relaunch a cooperation.
I would say that everything is in the hands of the competent authorities.
If (the EU) sees positive signs, and changes (in) approach, probably there could be the possibility to reconsider that.
But it is not my duty to express any other analysis and decision in that regard because I am the chief observer for our electoral mission and this is a political decision that is going to be held by the EU delegation and our External Action Service -all the authorities that have the duty and the rights to do that.
The EU EOM was among other missions that condemned the way the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission ran the August polls.
The Southern Africa Development Community Election Observer Mission (SEOM) said the elections fell short of the regional body’s electoral guidelines.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi claimed that the SADC and EU EOM reports were drafted by the same person intending to manipulate Zimbabwe’s election results the way they wanted.
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