BREAKING: Zim Minister arrested after ballot papers found in garbage Zimbabwe’s Deputy Transport Minister Morgan Komichi was arrested early on Sunday after ballot papers that had been filledin favouring presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai during a “special” vote for police and military were found in a rubbish bin. Mr Komichi is the deputy chairman of the MDC-T led by Mr Tsvangirai. The “special” vote for the uniformed services personnel was held on July 14-15; the general election is set for July 31. “Honourable Morgan Komichi, the MDC deputy national chairperson has been arrested and is at Harare central police. He has been taken in concerning the ballot papers found in a bin at the Harare International Conference Centre,” MDC-T said in a statement. The ballot papers were discovered on Thursday in a rubbish bin at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) National Command Centre in Harare. On Friday Mr Tsvangirai showed the ballot papers to reporters. The discovery raised concerns about the ZEC’s ability to hold a free, fair and smooth election,and about intentions the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe might have for manipulating the election results in their favour. ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau said on Saturday that Mr Komichi had handed the discarded ballot papers to the commission “On 25 July 2013, Mr Morgan Komichi of MDC-T approached the Chief Elections Officer of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission alleging that someone had picked up a sealed tamper-proof envelope with special vote ballot papers enclosed. Mr Komichi handed over the envelope to the Chief Elections Officer who has since retained the envelope and its contexts. “We have therefore handed over the matter to the police for investigation,” she said.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:39:07 +0000