Two Tasmanian councils have failed to attract enough candidates to fill their seats, with nominations for October’s local government elections now closed.
King Island Council received just five nominations for seven councillor positions.
Tasman Council received six nominations for its seven positions.
All the candidates in both councils have been elected unopposed without a single vote being cast.
The Electoral Commissioner will now call for fresh nominations to fill the leftover vacancies.
Notices will appear in the relevant newspapers for King Island and for Tasman on Wednesday September 23.
Nominations for those seats close at noon on Monday September 28.
Tasman Mayor Rod Macdonald said he did not know why the numbers were down.
“It’s hard to say really,” he told Pulse.
“I guess we’ll never really know why.”
Macdonald said he expected the remaining vacancy would be filled.
“We’ve got a good group of people there who’ve been elected and we’ll get on and do the job I’m sure” he said.
King Island councillor David Bowden said he was “rather puzzled” by the shortfall, but suspected cost of living pressures were keeping people away.
“Sometimes they’re doing two jobs, of course and they’re struggling to find time,” he told Pulse.
Bowden said he was also elected unopposed at the last council elections.
He said the lack of a contest did weaken the mandate.
“I would welcome a contest of ideas,” he said.
Bowden rejected any suggestion small councils like his were not viable, pointing to the island’s unique challenges.
Statewide, 430 candidates nominated for the 213 councillor positions available before nominations closed at noon today.
Of those, 258 are also contesting mayor or deputy mayor roles across the state’s 29 councils.
Candidates will be announced at noon tomorrow.
The elections are run by postal ballot and voting is compulsory.
Ballot packs will start reaching voters from Monday October 5.
Voting closes at 2pm on Tuesday October 27.
