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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
The High Court has deferred to tomorrow the bail hearing of MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi who stands accused of misrepresenting to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that he picked up a sealed tamper-proof envelope with a special vote ballot paper from a dust bin at a Harare hotel.
Komichi is alleged to have contravened Section 85 (i)(c) of the Electoral Act Chapter 2:13 which criminalises taking, destroying or opening a pack of ballot papers without authority.
He was arrested just before the July 31 election and he is still in custody.
Justice Hlekani Mwayera could not hear the bail appeal that had been set for today after it emerged that the prosecution had not yet filed its bail response.
Law officer Mr Edmore Nyazamba, however, filed the papers today and the matter is set to be heard tomorrow before Justice Mwayera.
The bail appeal was filed at the High Court after Harare magistrate Ms Anita Tshuma threw out the initial freedom bid.
Ms Tshuma ruled that Komichi was not a proper candidate for bail.
Allegations are that on July 25, Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau was sitting with other officials in a boardroom committee room at the Harare International Conference Centre.
Komichi is alleged to have approached Zec deputy director public relations Mr Tendai Pamire and told him he had an issue to raise with the chairperson who agreed to meet him.
In the meeting, Komichi alleged that an unnamed person allegedly informed him that he or she had picked up the 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 some ballot papers.
He alleged that Zec was destroying the ballots which were cast by the police.
The ballot paper he produced belonged to a policeman Mugove Chiginya who had allegedly voted in favour of MDC-T.
Zec allegedly noted that all the ballot papers did not have the presiding officer mark and that two were marked SV while the presidential ballot paper was not marked SV.
The commission reported the matter and investigations showed that Chiginya had failed to vote in the special voting exercise.
The State alleges that Komichi fraudulently took, opened or otherwise interfered with a pack of ballot papers endorsed in a grey tamper proof plastic which he alleges were allocated to Constable Chiginya.
Online Reporter