Council elections are held every two years.

Half of the elected Council members retire from their positions and nominations for the vacancy are declared open.

With respect to Huon Valley Council that has nine Councillors, four Councillors will be elected at one election with five elected at the following election.  

Councillors are elected for four year terms.  The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are also elected for two year terms at each election.

Elections are usually held in October of each election year and voting is not compulsory.

The Chief Electoral Officer of the Tasmanian Electoral Commission is responsible for the supervision of Local Government elections.  This includes the production of ballot papers, approval of forms and procedures, the appointment of returning Officers, public awareness and statutory advertising of election dates, nomination periods, etc.

The person in charge of running an election is called the Returning Officer.  They are appointed by the Electoral Commissioner to administer matters concerning the election.

Voting System

Council elections are conducted by postal ballot.  All elections for Councillor positions are required to be conducted by using a multi-member proportional representation electoral system.  This is directly modelled on the Hare-Clarke system used for Tasmanian House of Assembly elections.

A feature of the Hare-Clarke electoral system is that vacant seats are filled by recount rather than by elections.

Under the postal ballot system there is a "polling period" of at least ten days (excluding any Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday), rather than a single polling day.

2011 Elections

Tasmanian Local Councils are due for election in October 2013.  The election timetable will be provided closer to the election time.

Click here for information regarding Voting Enrolments

Click here for information regarding Becoming a Candidate

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission undertakes the elections on behalf of Local Government.  For more information click here