The European Union (EU) has announced that it is suspending financial aid to Zimbabwe’s electoral body because of concerns about its practices in the contested August elections.

Since 2022, the EU has been one of the donors to a project to improve the capacity of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

The project, which is run by the United Nations Development Programme, was to end in December 2024.

However, the EU said that it would step back from the project, which is currently under scrutiny due to concerns raised by several international election observers regarding the independence and transparency of the Electoral Commission during the 2023 polls.