SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The trial of MDC-T deputy national chairman, Morgan Komichi, who is facing allegations of contravening the country’s electoral laws, began on Tuesday. Lawyer Charles Kwaramba confirmed that Komichi, who is pleading not guilty, will be back in court on Wednesday to hear testimony from state witnesses. Komichi is still being held in police custody after several attempts to apply for bail were rejected by the state. Komichi was arrested on July 28th, on allegations of misrepresenting to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that he had picked up from a dust bin, a sealed tamper-proof envelope with a ‘special vote’ ballot paper at a Harare hotel. He is also accused of marking the ballot papers in favour of his party since investigations showed that the ballot papers were not marked by the voter and could not have been marked at the polling station as they do not bear the secret mark of the presiding officer of the polling station. Komichi, who was Morgan Tsvangirai’s chief election agent, is facing charges of contravening the Electoral Act which outlaws the unauthorised taking, destroying or opening of ballot papers. The State alleges that six days before the July 31st poll, ZEC officials were in a boardroom committee room at the Harare International Conference Centre, in a meeting chaired by Justice Rita Makarau. Komichi allegedly approached ZEC’s deputy director of public relations, Tendai Pamire, and told him he had an issue to raise with the chairperson, who agreed to meet him. In the meeting Komichi said that an unnamed person informed him that they had picked up an envelope from a dustbin at the HICC where the special vote was being processed. Komichi further said that he had opened it out of curiosity and discovered that there were ballot papers inside. Based on this, Komichi alleged that ZEC was destroying ballots which were cast by the police in favour of the MDC-T. ZEC should have investigated this further, but instead Komichi was arrested.