Council elections

You must enrol and vote if you:

• are 18 years or older
• are an Australian citizen
• have lived at your address in the Port Phillip Council for longer than one month.

Check your state-enrolment details on the VEC website: Enrolment | Victorian Electoral Commission (vec.vic.gov.au)

Some ratepayers can apply to become council-enrolled voters in Port Phillip Council if they are:

• a property owner, occupier or represent a corporation
• 18 or older
• not a State-enrolled voter within the Port Phillip Council area.

These are known as council-enrolled voters. The rules for council-enrolled voters have changed ahead of the 2024 council elections. These changes are explained below. You can also find this on the VEC website  Enrolling for local council elections | Victorian Electoral Commission (vec.vic.gov.au)

Owner ratepayers

You can apply to enrol in Port Phillip Council if you:

• own property and pay rates in the council area
• are 18 or older
• are not a state-enrolled voter who lives in Port Phillip Council.

This includes:

• Australian citizens who own a property in Port Phillip Council but do not live in the area (for example an investment or a holiday home)
• non-citizens over 18 who own a property and live in Port Phillip Council.

Up to 2 ratepayers can apply to enrol per property, but each person only gets one vote.

Occupier ratepayers

You can apply to enrol in Port Phillip Council if you:

• pay rates for a property that you occupy but do not own
• are 18 or older
• are not a state-enrolled voter.

Up to 2 people per property can apply to enrol, but each person only gets one vote.

Corporations

You can apply to enrol to vote on behalf of a corporation if you:

• are a director or company secretary of a corporation that pays rates (either as an owner or an occupier) in the council area
• have consented to being appointed as the corporation’s representative
• are not already a state-enrolled voter or council-enrolled voter for the same council.

Only one person can apply to enrol as the corporation’s representative.

This means that if you are enrolled to vote, in council elections then you must vote. Failure to vote will attract a penalty.  The non-voter enforcement program is managed by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC).

For further information about the election including compulsory voting, fines and reviews, please contact the Victorian Electoral Commission by phoning 131 832 or view the VEC website.

Council-enrolments for occupiers and corporations expire before the next local government general election. If you want to continue to vote, you must apply to enrol again before the next local council election (2028). We will send you an invitation when it is time to renew your enrolment. 

Owner ratepayers’ enrolment does not expire, but you can apply to resign your enrolment.

If you are a Council-enrolled voter and you don’t want to vote for that property anymore, you can apply to resign your enrolment by contacting us on phone 03 9209 6777.

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. At the 2024 election, Port Phillip’s voters will be asked to elect nine Councillors from nine separate wards across the municipality. These ward boundaries have been designed to ensure that each ward contains approximately the same number of voters.  Find out more on the VEC website.

The new ward names are: 

• Albert Park Ward
• Alma Ward
• Balaclava Ward
• Elwood Ward
• Lakeside Ward
• Montague Ward
• Port Melbourne Ward
• South Melbourne Ward
• St Kilda Ward

 In a council by-election, people vote to elect a new councillor.

A by-election may be held if:

• a councillor resigns or cannot complete their term in a single-councillor ward; or
• there are more than six months before the next general council election.

If you enrolled for the local council elections in 2024, you will remain enrolled for any council by-elections up until 2028. It will be compulsory for you to vote. 

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. 

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. 

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

Election campaign donation returns

The Local Government Act 2020 requires all candidates who nominate in council elections to submit an election campaign donation return to the Chief Executive Officer within 40 days after election day. 

The election campaign donation return 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.

A summary of all election campaign donation returns is required to be made available on our website until the close of the roll for the next general election. 
Summary of 2020 election campaign donation returns (PDF 78 KB)