Filling particular vacancies arising during beginning of local government’s term
166A Filling particular vacancies arising during beginning of local government’s term
This section applies if, under section 166(1)(a), a local government is to fill the vacant office of a councillor (the former councillor) by following the procedure under this section.
The chief executive officer must ask the electoral commission to comply with subsection (3).
The electoral commission must—
give a vacancy notice to the runner-up who is first in the order of priority; and
if consent is not given by the runner-up on or before the deadline, give a vacancy notice to the runner-up who is next in the order of priority; and
if consent is not given by the runner-up who is next in the order of priority on or before the deadline, repeat the step mentioned in paragraph (b) until a runner-up consents to the appointment on or before the deadline for the runner-up.
If a runner-up consents to the appointment on or before the deadline for the runner-up—
the electoral commission must notify the chief executive officer that the runner-up has consented; and
the local government must fill the vacant office by appointing the runner-up.
If there are no runners-up remaining, the vacant office must be filled by a by-election.
The electoral commission may agree to extend the day and time stated in a vacancy notice if the electoral commission considers it reasonable to do so in the circumstances.
For deciding the order of priority, if 2 or more runners-up in a quadrennial election have an equal number of votes—
the electoral commission must, in the presence of 2 witnesses, follow the process stated in the Local Government Electoral Act, section 98(7)(a) to (g) and (8) for the runners-up; and
the runner-up whose name is recorded as mentioned in section 98(7)(g) of that Act is taken to be higher in the order of priority; and
the process mentioned in paragraph (a) must be repeated until the order of priority for each runner-up has been decided.
The electoral commission must allow each runner-up mentioned in subsection (7), or their representative, to be present for the process mentioned in that subsection.
In this section—
deadline, in relation to a runner-up giving consent, means—
the day and time stated in a vacancy notice given to the runner-up; or
if the day and time is extended under subsection (6)—the day and time as extended.
order of priority, for runners-up in a quadrennial election, means the order of runners-up ranked according to the number of votes received by each runner-up in the election, starting with the runner-up who received the highest number of votes in the election.
runner-up, for a vacant office of a councillor, means a person who was a candidate for the office in the last quadrennial election, other than—
the former councillor; or
a person who holds office as a councillor (including as the mayor) when the office becomes vacant.
vacancy notice, in relation to a runner-up, means a notice stating—
that the office of a councillor is vacant; and
if the runner-up is qualified to be a councillor, the runner-up may consent to being appointed to the vacant office; and
the day and time by which consent must be given to the electoral commission.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
The statute text is free to read above. View subscription options to unlock the case-law research tools for each provision.