Council elections

Find out about Council elections including the previous election result, voting, the election period and how election campaign donations are handled.

We’re moving to a single member ward structure for the 2024 elections. This means we move from having three wards with three councillors per ward, to nine wards with one councillor per ward. Find out more here.

Wards

The City of Port Phillip is divided into three wards, with three councillors elected to represent each ward.

For more details, view the ward map (PDF 566 KB).

2020 Election Results

The last general election for the City of Port Phillip was held on 24 October 2020 and the VEC declared the results on Friday 6 November 2020. Elected Councillors were sworn in at a Special Council Meeting held on 11 November 2020.

The successful candidates were:

Canal Ward

  • Tim Baxter 
  • Rhonda Clark
  • Louise Crawford

Gateway Ward

  • Heather Cunsolo
  • Peter Martin
  • Marcus Pearl 

Lake Ward

  • Andrew Bond
  • Katherine Copsey
  • Christina Sirakoff

View the 2020 election results for the City of Port Phillip on the VEC website.

Councillor profiles can be found on the Your Councillors page.

Elections

Voting in a council election

The Election Period

The Election Period (commonly known as Caretaker Period) is the period starting from the last day that nominations to be a candidate for a Council election can be received and ends at 6 pm on election day.

During this period, Council business is conducted in accordance with the Election Period Policy (PDF 339 KB) to avoid the use of public resources in a way that may unduly affect the election result, and to minimise Councils making certain types of decisions that may unduly limit the decision-making ability of the incoming Council.

The Election Period Policy ensures that all general elections of the City of Port Phillip are conducted in a manner that is ethical, fair and equitable and are publicly perceived as such.

Election campaign donations

All candidates who nominate in council elections are required to submit an ‘Election Campaign Donation Return’ to the Chief Executive Officer within 40 days after election day.

Candidate returns must detail any gifts, goods or services worth $500 or more received during the donation period for use in connection with their election campaign. This applies to all candidates, whether elected or not, and whether they received campaign donations or not.

The ‘donation period’ is defined as the period beginning 30 days after election day in the previous election and ending 30 days after election day in the current election.

In accordance with the Local Government Act 2020 the Chief Executive Officer must:

  • submit a report to the Minister specifying the names of the persons who were candidates in the election, and the names of those candidates who submitted an election campaign donation return (PDF 78 KB).
  • make a summary of each election campaign donation return received available on Council's website until entitlement for the next general election
  • ensure that a copy of an election campaign donation return is available for inspection for a period of four years from the date it is given.

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