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Farai Kuvirimirwa Court Reporter
MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi had no good intentions when he opened a tamper-proof envelope containing ballot papers that was allegedly found in a dustbin at a city hotel, the court heard.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) deputy chief elections officer, Mr Utoile Silaigwana, told Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe that Komichi wanted to cast the electoral body in bad light and discredit the election process.
Komichi is facing allegations of fraud and contravening the country’s electoral laws.
He said Komichi is a senior politician in the multi-party liaison committee and was familiar with the electoral processes.
“He is familiar with everything and it showed he had no good intention since he knew there were ZEC offices at the Harare International Conference Centre. Therefore the intention was to put ZEC in bad light since elections are emotional matters. If society is sensitised incorrectly, that could have led probably to political instability in this country,” he said.
Mr Silaigwana said Komichi contravened the electoral law when he opened the envelope he allegedly picked from the dustbin. He said Komichi was supposed to take the envelope in the state he found it to the commission through proper channels.
“The fact that he opened the ballot papers shows he had ulterior motives. I deny that they were opened by someone on the basis of the statement he told the commission.
“He refused to tell the commission where the dust bin containing more ballot papers was. He was asked the name of the person who had picked the ballot papers but he refused to disclose the name of the person,” said Mr Silaigwana.
The ballot papers alleged to have been picked belonged to one Constable Mugove Chiginya who was a registered voter in Mbare constituency.
The defence claimed that Cst Chiginya was a registered voter in four constituencies. Mr Muchadehama told the court that Cst Chiginya was a registered voter in ward 9 which did not exist in Mbare constituency since he resided at Mbare Police Camp.
He claimed that Cst Chiginya was a registered voter in Mbare, Southerton and while a grey envelope picked from the bin showed he was registered in Harare East and another khaki one suggested he was from Mt Pleasant constituency.
Mr Silaigwana refuted the claims and said people were registered in constituencies of their choice and no fictitious voters were permitted to cast ballots during the special voting days.
He further told the court that under the special voting process, anyone was permitted to vote anywhere within a specific ward.
Mr Michael Mugabe of the Attorney-General’s Office alleges that Komichi was arrested on July 28, on allegations of misrepresenting to ZEC that he had “picked up” from a dust bin, a sealed tamper-proof envelope with a special vote ballot paper at the HICC.
Komichi, allegedly, approached ZEC deputy director of public relations Mr Tendai Pamire and told him that an unnamed person informed him that they had picked an envelope from a dustbin at the HICC where the special vote was being processed.
Komichi further alleged that he had opened it out of curiosity and discovered that there were ballot papers cast by the police in favour of MDC-T by Cst Chiginya. The commission reported the matter to the police and investigations showed that Cst Chiginya had failed to vote in the special voting exercise as his name had not been called out by the presiding officer. The trial continues today.
Online Reporter