Conservative member convicted of electoral fraud after councillor father acquitted

A quick update on the case of electoral fraud in Walsall, where father and son were charged. The father, Conservative councillor Mohammed Munir was cleared in September. His son, also a Conservative Party member but not a councillor, has now however been convicted.

Ali Hayder Munir has received a three month jail sentence after admitting to two charges of faking proxy vote applications in the run up to the 2008 elections for Walsall Council. The fake applications involved identifying real but unregistered people and then making electoral registration and proxy vote applications on their behalf. The government’s plans for individual voter registration will make this sort of fraud harder.

Ali Hayder Munir has been expelled from the Conservative Party.