TWO MDC-T election agents arrested on July 30 this year and charged with stealing the voters’ roll were acquitted last Friday for lack of evidence.
Report by Own Correspondent
The two — Anna Bvute and Phillip Mabika — were set free after Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe ruled that the State had failed to prove a prima facie case against them.
Bvute and Mabika, who were the MDC-T’s chief election agents in Budiriro constituency, were arrested on July 30, 2013, just a day before the harmonised elections, and charged with stealing a voters’ roll from Budiriro elections officer Tauyanarwo Makuza.
Soon after their arrest, police issued a Press statement claiming that the pair had stolen the voters’ roll in a bid to discredit the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the election process.
However, the pair’s lawyer Charles Kwaramba applied for discharge at the close of the State case, arguing that the State had failed to prove that the pair had indeed committed an offence.