HARARE - Zimrights director Okay Machisa remains in remand prison as his High Court bail application drags on.

The State yesterday said it had not been furnished with the necessary papers to respond to the bail request.

Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba told Justice Felistas Chatukuta that he had not been given the record of proceedings from the Magistrates’ Court and was unable to respond to the application.

Machisa’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, filed the appeal last Thursday after her client had been denied bail by Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe.

Prosecutors allege Machisa, together with Dorcas Shereni, Leo Chamahwinya, Farai Bhani and Tatenda Chinaka, produced fake copies of voters’ registration certificates between May last year and this month in a bid to defraud the Registrar General’s office.

All the accused are languishing in remand prison.

They are all accused of forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud or publishing false statements prejudicial to the State.

It is alleged Bhani registered as a voter and acquired a certificate of registration, which the ZimRights officials used to create duplicate forms.

The court heard ZimRights officials allegedly used false names to complete the duplicate registration forms.

According to court papers, Chamahwinya allegedly used the completed fake documents at their offices for an analysis, which they intended to use to criticise and tarnish the Registrar General’s office.

The court heard that there was a possibility that the misrepresentation could cause “bloodshed or a chaotic situation in Zimbabwe” if the fake documents were detected during or after the 2013 general elections.

The bail hearing was postponed to tomorrow to enable the State to peruse the record of proceedings and file a response. - Tendai Kamhungira