THE High Court yesterday deferred to today the bail hearing of MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi, who is accused of violating the Electoral act after he was allegedly found in possession of a stray ballot.
Phillip Chidavaenzi
Justice Hlekani Mwayera heard that the State was yet to file its papers in response to the bail application.
Komichi filed his bail application at the High Court after Harare magistrate Anita Tshuma on July 30 remanded him in custody to August 14 on the basis that his release would not augur well with the political atmosphere in the country in the run-up to the July 31 harmonised elections.
Allegations against Komichi are that on July 25 at the Harare International Conference Centre he told Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) officials that a certain person brought to him an envelope which he said he had picked in a rubbish bin.
He then handed over the envelope to the Zec officials and alleged that he had unsealed it out of curiosity. It is alleged that he discovered three ballots – for the presidential, national and local authority elections – in the envelope.
The accused is said to have alleged that Zec officials were destroying ballot papers used by the police officers, which were in favour of MDC –T candidates during the special vote held from July 14 to 15.
It is alleged the ballot papers did not have the presiding officer’s mark but were marked SV (special vote) while the ballot for the presidential election did not have that mark.
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Further allegations are that the ballot papers suggested that they had been used by one Constable Mugove Chiginya, but investigations showed that the constable had not voted during that time as his name was never called out by the election officials.
On July 16, it is alleged, Chiginya surrendered his ballot papers to his superiors since he had failed to vote. Zec’s polling and training officer, the court heard, examined Chiginya’s fingers using a detector with ultraviolet light and no traces of voting ink were found.
