Welcome to Day 6 of the 2016 council elections! Please read the Day 1 post for an introduction and more information.

Final list of nominations and ballot order

With nominations closing at 12 noon today, here is the final list for every ward in the ballot order drawn today with all 33 candidates:

As you will also see, I am not re-contesting my position as councillor for Maranoa Ward. I will be making a full statement closer to election day.

A few other observations to make:

• Bellevue Ward has only one candidate, the incumbent mayor Jim Parke. This means that voting will not occur and he has been successful.
• Glenferrie Ward fields six candidates, more than any others at this election. Cotham Ward comes in a close second with five nominations. Both incumbents, Judith Voce and Steve Hurd, are re-contesting.
• Incumbents Heinz Kreutz (Lynden), Kevin Chow (Solway) and myself (Maranoa) are not re-contesting our positions at this election.
• A number of candidates from previous elections have re-nominated, some in different wards.

The order in which candidates will be displayed on the ballot was also announced today shortly after nominations closed. This is determined at random as there is a small advantage for candidates placed first on the list.

Election period

All councils (except Geelong, who have been sacked and will have their election next year) now enter the election period, known more commonly as the ‘caretaker period’. This puts limits on councils’ operations, including being prohibited from making major policy decisions and communications material from council being required to be authorised by the CEO. There is more information on this here.

With the candidates now known, it is just two weeks until the mail-out of ballots begins. Let the fun and games begin!