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Herald Reporter
JAPAN says it does not fund political parties in Zimbabwe, and has no plan to fund any party in the build-up to this year’s harmonised general elections, counsellor and deputy Head of Mission at the Japanese Embassy in Harare, Mr Hiroyuki Kumagai, has said.
His intervention comes after The Herald published an article on June 22, 2023, headlined, “US$10m for training election agents illegal: ZANU PF”, in which we reported that Japan was one of the countries and organisations putting together a “donation” of US$10 million for the training of 12 500 election agents for all political parties participating in the August 23 harmonised elections.
In a statement, Mr Kumagai, said in fact, Japan signed a grant agreement on February 20 this year, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) concerning Support for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Capacity Building Project Phase Two, or ZIM-ECO2 Project, worth about US$1,44 million.
In light of the above, The Herald would like to apologise unreservedly for the inconvenience caused to Japan as a result of our story.
Online Reporter