Nine South Australian councils – including two in the Limestone Coast – will hold supplementary elections in early 2023, having fallen short of the required number of nominees for each vacancy in the recent council elections.

Residents in the Robe and Kingston district councils will again cast post votes to decide their mayors.

ECSA’s Director of Communications and Advertising James Trebilcock said in regional communities, local councils worked on a wide range of critical issues that may include attracting essential workers for aged care and childcare through to town planning and permits.

“Anyone can be a councillor, as long as they meet the relevant criteria including being over 18, an Australian resident and eligible to vote in council area they nominate in,” he said.

“Councils are keen for people from all parts of the community to nominate for these positions to ensure the community is represented and to bring a variety of skills to the council.

“It is a great way to help shape the future of your community.

“Nominees now have around six weeks to prepare their nomination materials and photographs before the January 12 opening of nominations.”

Mr Trebilcock said, with the upcoming holidays in mind, the online nominations portal would open in the first week of January so that prospective councillors can get online and start working on their nominations before the official acceptance period begins on January 12.

“Nominees will be able to submit their nominations once the portal is open but official acceptance of these early nominations will be from January 12,” he said.

“The last update of the electoral roll was back in July, so we’d encourage everyone to check their details on the electoral roll well before the December 20 cut-off and make sure their postal address is correct.

“Ballot packs will be mailed out to these addresses in February.”

Ballot packs must be received back to ECSA on March 14, so electors are encouraged to complete and post their ballots as soon as they receive them to ensure they arrive back at ECSA before the close of voting.