‘Komichi’s conduct was unlawful’

Farai Kuvirimirwa Court Reporter
MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi breached the electoral law when he opened ballot papers that did not belong to him, a Harare magistrate heard yesterday.Komichi is facing a charge of fraud and contravening the Electoral Act after he was allegedly found in possession of an envelope containing ballot papers belonging to a policeman, Constable Mugove Chiginya of Mbare, which he claimed to have picked in a dustbin at a city hotel.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission deputy director of public relations Mr Tendai Pamire said the envelope containing the ballot papers was not addressed to Komichi hence he was not allowed at law to open it.

Mr Pamire said this while being cross-examined by Komichi’s lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama. When asked to comment on the conduct of Komichi, Mr Pamire said it was unacceptable to open ballot papers addressed in the name of someone, adding that it was not permissible in terms of the Electoral Act.

He said the MDC-T’s chief elections agent told the commission that he opened an envelope containing Cst Chiginya’s ballot papers out of curiosity.
“He indicated he opened the envelope out of curiosity and according to law they are supposed to be opened by the voter. He was not supposed to open them because the envelope was not addressed to him,” Mr Pamire said in response to the lawyer’s question.

“According to my understanding, ballot papers are security items and are not supposed to be found anywhere but in the hands of the appropriate person. I expected them to be at the HICC or the voter which is the channel laid by the Electoral Act. They were supposed to be at the HICC, in transit or with Constable Chiginya.”

Mr Pamire said he attended the meeting where Komichi presented the ballot papers to the commission on the request of the chairperson and did not have adequate time to go and to check the bins that were mentioned at the HICC.

“After presenting the ballot papers, the chairperson said she wanted to retain the papers and use them as evidence after Komichi had requested them back,” he said.

Upon being asked if there was anything amiss on Komichi approaching ZEC with the envelope containing ballot papers, Mr Pamire said, “I did not see anything amiss on him coming to the commission with the issue since he did present many issues during the national multi-party liaison committee meetings.

“Afterwards he did not disclose the person who picked up the ballot papers but said they had been obtained from a bin which was full but the exact location was not specified,” he said.

Charges against Komichi arose on July 28, after he allegedly misrepresented that a sealed tamper-proof envelope with a special vote ballot paper had been picked at the HICC where the special vote was being processed.

Investigations showed that Cst Chiginya had allegedly failed to vote in the special voting exercise as his name had not been called out by the presiding officer.

Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe postponed the trial to September 9.