SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday visited his chief polling agent Morgan Komichi, who is detained at Harare’s Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, said they also visited Last Maengahama, Yvonne Musarurwa, Simon Mapanzure and Tungamirai Madzokere who, together with 25 others, are accused of murdering a police inspector in Glen View in 2011. The four have remained in custody since their arrest after they were deemed a flight right and refused bail. Another suspect, Rebecca Mafukeni, died in custody last month while awaiting judgement. Speaking to SW Radio Africa after the visit Tamborinyoka said: “The aim was to see some of our party colleagues who are being persecuted for various political reasons. We saw Komichi, Maengahama and Mapanzure.“They were all in high spirits, with Mapanzure praying for us when one would expect it to be the other way round.“They are very much aware that it is going to be a long struggle and it appears like they have prepared themselves for anything,” Tamborinyoka added. Komichi, who is also the MDC-T deputy national chairman, was arrested July 28th, and accused of tampering with a ballot paper, an offence under the Electoral Act. The charges relate to an envelope containing ballot papers which was retrieved from a dustbin at the Harare International Conference Centre, the processing facility for the July 14th-16th Special Vote. Komichi handed the envelope over to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) after verifying its contents. However, while acknowledging that the ballots were genuine, ZEC officials queried Komichi’s story and the source of the ballots. ZEC accused him of tampering with and marking the ballot papers in favour of his party. This was after the voter for whom the ballots were meant, said that he had not voted. Komichi denies the charges. He is expected back in court on Wednesday. Several bail pleas on his behalf have failed, with the state insisting that he is a flight risk. At the time of the arrest, the MDC-T accused ZEC of using diversionary tactics in a bid to “cover up” electoral fraud. On Tuesday Tsvangirai re-stated his party’s position, saying: “It is strange that they chose to incarcerate Komichi instead of ZEC for its negligence in the election.” The body has also been roundly condemned for conducting a shoddy electoral process which saw millions of Zimbabweans either failing to register or casting their votes. To date, the Commission has failed to provide political parties with an electronic voters’ roll, despite a court order. ZEC’s credibility was called further into question when one of the Commissioners, lawyer Mkhululi Nyathi, resigned in protest at the unprofessional way in which the body had handled the electoral process. In his resignation letter, Nyathi also said: “While throughout the whole process I retained some measure of hope that the integrity of the process could be salvaged along the way, this was not to be, hence my considered decision to resign.”