Candidates in a local government election
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Candidate for councillor in an undivided council area
To be eligible for election as a councillor in an area that does not have wards a person must be enrolled, on the residential roll or in the case of the non-residential roll, in that council area by 6pm on the day the rolls close.
Candidate for councillor in a council area with wards
Where a council has wards a candidate for election as a councillor must be enrolled in that council area (but not necessarily in the ward in which they are nominating as a candidate), either as a resident or non-resident elector. For example, a person may be enrolled in 'B' ward of the council area but may decide to nominate as a candidate in 'C' ward.
Although a person can nominate for more than one ward in the same council area, they can only run as a candidate in one. This means that they must withdraw all nominations but one before the close of nominations.
Candidate for 'popularly elected' mayor
In an election for mayor, a candidate must be enrolled on the residential roll in the council area or in the case of a non-resident elector, by 6pm on the day the rolls close.
A person may be a candidate for both mayor and councillor for the same council, but cannot be elected to both positions.
Under the double candidature rules, if a person is elected by the electors as mayor and the person is also a candidate for election as a councillor, the votes cast for the person as a councillor are not counted for that person. Instead, they are distributed as if the person elected as mayor was not a candidate for councillor. In other words, each first preference indicated on ballot papers in the election of councillors for the person elected as mayor is disregarded, a second preference becomes a first preference, a third becomes a second, and so on.
In the City of Sydney, a candidate for Lord Mayor must also be a candidate for councillor at the same time but cannot be elected to both positions. If elected as Lord Mayor, the votes cast for that person as a councillor are distributed in accordance with the double candidature rules described above.