- Source: 2020 Ipswich City Council election
The 2020 Ipswich City Council election was held on 28 March 2020 to elect a mayor and eight councillors to the City of Ipswich. The election was held as part of the statewide local elections in Queensland, Australia.
Teresa Harding was elected mayor with 62.98% of the vote after preferences, becoming the first non-Labor Party aligned Ipswich mayor in 50 years.
The election saw significant changes to the council's electoral system, and followed its dismissal in August 2018.
Background
= 2017 mayoral by-election
=On 6 June 2017, mayor Paul Pisasale announced his resignation, citing a decline in his health due to multiple sclerosis. The announcement came one day after his office was searched by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission and police.
Andrew Antoniolli was elected mayor with 54.44% of the vote after preferences.
= 2018 dismissal
=In May 2018, Antoniolli was charged with seven counts of corruption forcing him to stand down and administrators to take over Ipswich City Council.
In August 2018, the Queensland Government passed legislation to dismiss all Ipswich councillors and replace them with an administrator. The dismissal officially came into effect on 21 August.
Greg Chemello was appointed as administrator to serve for the rest of the term.
Electoral system
Prior to 2020, Ipswich City Council was composed of a directly elected mayor and 10 single-member wards (or divisions), both using optional preferential voting.
In July 2019, it was announced that the 10 single-member wards would be replaced by four two-member wards, reducing the total amount of councillors to eight. Preferential voting was removed and replaced by plurality block voting (also referred to as first-past-the-post by the Electoral Commission), where voters are only required to mark the same amount of candidates as there are positions to be elected − in the case of Ipswich, two candidates.
The electoral system for mayor was unchanged.
Candidates
Teresa Harding, a government contractor and former two-time Liberal National candidate for Blair, contested the mayoral election without any party endorsement.
Two Labor Party members, Mark Williams and Ursula Monsiegneur, contested the mayoral election as Independent Labor candidates.
Pat Walsh was endorsed by the Greens to contest the mayoralty. The Liberal Democrats endorsed two councillor candidates, husband and wife Anthony and Jacinta Bull.
Paul Tully, who served as a councillor for 39 years until its dismissal, led the "Your Voice Of Experience" ticket in Division 2.
Results
= Mayor
== Councillors
=References
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- 2020 Ipswich City Council election
- City of Ipswich
- 2024 Ipswich City Council election
- List of mayors of Ipswich, Queensland
- 2024 New Hampshire Executive Council election
- 2024 Ipswich West state by-election
- 2017 Ipswich mayoral by-election
- 2022 Glasgow City Council election
- Results of the 2020 Queensland local elections
- 2024 Queensland local elections
