The City of Adelaide will be subpoenaed to produce documents and correspondence between council staff and Central Ward councillor Jing Li between May and November 2022, the District Court has decided.

Hyde’s legal team alleges emails between Li and council staff, which are partially redacted, show that Li facilitated the voting of about 593 non-citizen residents in the 2022 council election.

District Court Judge Michael Burnett ruled the emails were “directly relevant” to Hyde’s case against the Electoral Commissioner of South Australia and Li.

The case, which the Court of Disputed Returns heard closing arguments for in February, had adjourned for a verdict, but Hyde’s legal team asked the court yesterday to reopen the case to allow the emails to be received as evidence.

Hyde originally petitioned the court in December 2022 to declare the Central Ward election void, alleging “illegal practices” and “voter harvesting” contributed to his narrow loss to newly elected councillor Jing Li.

The legal challenge came after the electoral commission rejected 23 ballots from Central Ward over suspicions they were not returned by the residents whose names were attached to the voting slips.

Simon Ower KC, representing Hyde, said it was “happenstance” and “an amazing coincidence” they had the documents containing Li’s emails, and that their discovery arose from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by a member of the Legislative Council.

Judge Burnett named Liberal MLC Ben Hood as the source of the FOI request.

Hyde is also a member of the Liberal Party and unsuccessfully ran for the state seat of Waite at the 2022 election.

In January, the court heard Hyde worked in the Liberal Party state secretariat as head of strategic projects.

Barrister Helen Luu, representing Li, said there were “certainly no illegal practices revealed” by the emails between Li and the City of Adelaide.

Luu said Li’s legal team did not oppose the trial being reopened for a limited time, or the court having unredacted forms of the emails.

She said uncensored versions of the emails had been provided to Hyde’s lawyers as “informal discovery”.

Ower said this was a “deliberate” move to avoid cross-examination. Ower acknowledged the application to the court was “unusual” but “in the interests of justice” as it was believed the emails would affect the outcome of the case.

While all parties agree the timeframe should be swift given the election result Hyde was disputing came over a year ago, Ower said it was “just the beginning”.

Todd Golding KC, representing the Electoral Commissioner, said the end must be reached first, suggesting the case verdict may have “only been a full stop away”.

Li has been ordered by the judge to provide an affidavit that contains a list of his relevant communications, while the council  will be subpoenaed to produce documents and correspondence between them and Li that occurred in 2022.

The case will be heard again on Friday, April 26.