Milad El-Halabi charged with fraud over 2020 City of Moreland council election

A Moreland councillor will face court later this month accused of rigging the council election in 2020.

Northern suburbs Labor powerbroker Milad El-Halabi will face court later this month accused of rigging the Moreland Council election in 2020.

El-Halabi, who was one of four candidates elected to represent the council’s large North-West ward, was charged last week and will appear by summons at a filing hearing on February 25.

The allegations stem from probes by the Victorian Electoral Commission and the fraud squad into 83 “suspect ballots”, which are thought to have been removed from letterboxes, and cast by post.

The commission was prompted to investigate when voters queried why they had not received ballot papers in the post, only for checks to reveal their completed ballots had already been cast.

The City of Moreland. Picture: Getty

The commission has previously told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that any councillor convicted with a voting offence would cease to be qualified as a councillor and their office would be vacated.

El-Halabi’s fellow councillors in the North-West ward, Oscar Yildiz, Helen Davidson and Angelica Panopoulos, are not accused of any wrongdoing and have pushed for a full-blown review of the election.

It has not been made unclear whether the “suspect ballots” might have been enough to sway the outcome of the vote, but a report by an elections expert, commissioned by Ms Panopoulos, argued as few as three votes could have changed the outcome, depending on how preferences were directed.

Milad El-Halibi will face court for the first time on February 25.

Moreland Mayor Mark Riley declined to comment on the criminal charges but has said the scandal surrounding the 2020 election has resulted in uncertainty for voters and councillors.

El-Halabi, who was first arrested in March last year, before being released without charge, did not respond to calls on Friday.

He and his co-accused have been charged with conspiracy to cheat and defraud, conspiracy to make false documents, theft, forging ballot materials and interfering with ballot materials.

The North-West ward had 47,583 enrolled voters at the time of the election, and covers the suburbs of Glenroy, Gowanbrae, Hadfield and Pascoe Vale, and parts of Brunswick West, Pascoe Vale South and Tullamarine.

Chief Municipal Inspector Michael Stefanovic has the power to apply to have councillors stood down if they have been charged with an offence.