Two Australian states are in the process of electing their local councils for the next four years. Unfortunately due to the large volume of state elections currently taking place, I won’t be able to provide any coverage of these elections, but others have produced some useful coverage elsewhere.
South Australian elections take place every four years. All SA council elections are conducted by postal ballot – ballot papers will be sent out over the week of 20-24 October, and voting closes on November 7. SA councils are elected by a mixture of single-member and multi-member wards, as well as directly-elected Mayors in most (or possibly all?) councils.
Until this year, half of each Tasmanian council was elected every two years for a four year term. This year is the first time that entire councils have been up for election at the same time. Tasmanian councils have no wards – so this means that all councils are proportionally elected, and the quotas will drop significantly. Mayors in Tasmania tend to be directly-elected. Tasmanian ballot papers will be posted between the 14th and the 17th of October, and must be returned by the 28th of October.
The shift in Tasmania towards conducting all council elections on one day every four years means that only one Australian state now conducts staggered council elections. In Western Australia, councillors are elected every two years for four year terms. The next WA council elections are due in late 2015.
Queensland’s next council elections are due in early 2016, while both New South Wales and Victoria are both due around the time of the next federal election in late 2016.
Tasmanian psephologist Kevin Bonham has completed an in-depth profile of the Hobart City Council election, including analysis of how sitting councillors’ have voted and lists of candidates. I recommend it for those eager for more elections news.
Radio Adelaide program The Scrutineers, by Casey Briggs and Dianne Janes, has produced a special episode focusing on South Australia’s local government elections. You can listen to the show online, as well as subscribe to the podcast and download old episodes of the show.
All Tasmanian councils have directly-elected Mayors and Deputy Mayors. It would be the only state that has directly-elected Deputy Mayors???
Yes all Tas councils have directly elected Mayors and Deputies. This is somewhat unsatisfactory in that a candidate who runs for Mayor and loses cannot be Deputy Mayor in the same election cycle, meaning that some sitting Deputies who would have won re-election gamble their positions to run for the top job and lose.
More SA news: Bob Such has died, so there’ll be a by-election in Fisher.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-13/sa-by-election-bob-such-seat-to-put-pressure-on-weatherill-govt/5810494
Counting thread for Hobart mainly with some comments on other councils is up and going:
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/hobart-city-council-count-includes-some.html
Counting starts Tuesday afternoon.
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