Vacancy within Colac Otway Shire Council

December 21 2022

A countback procedure to fill an extraordinary vacancy within Colac Otway Shire Council will take place at 12 noon on Wednesday 18 January 2023, due to the election of Councillor Joe McCracken to the Victorian Parliament.

The vacancy will be filled by a countback of all formal votes from the 2020 Colac Otway Shire Council election, (instead of voters voting in a by-election). Votes will be redistributed to candidates who were unsuccessful at that general election, and who remain eligible to participate in the countback, to fill the extraordinary vacancy.

The countback is based on the proportional representation method of counting. ‘The candidate who achieves the quota will be elected. If no participating candidate achieves the quota, following the distribution of votes to participating candidates, the candidate with the highest number of countback votes will be elected,’ Election Manager Roger Millar said.

The countback will be held online via webinar. A link to the countback will be made available on the VEC website from 11:30 am on Wednesday 18 January 2023, at vec.vic.gov.au.

Candidates and interested parties may observe the countback.

The result will be published online at vec.vic.gov.au.