With just four days to go until nominations close for Southland's councils and community boards, it looks like many councillors will be elected without a vote being cast.

Councils across the country are struggling to find people who want to stand as councillors in the local government elections in October. Even fewer seem interested in serving on community boards.

Southland is no exception. Many who have put their names forward could be automatically elected, and even then, there could be empty seats around the tables once the new term begins.

There are, however, plenty of candidates vying for the province's mayoral positions.

Invercargill City Council (ICC) reportedly had up to 9 mayoral candidates in the running, although only four had submitted the paperwork as of today (8 August).

Stuff is also reporting that councillors Rebecca Amundsen and Ian Pottinger have withdrawn from the race today, with Pottinger throwing his weight behind deputy mayor Nobby Clark's bid.

Amundsen told Stuff there were "a number of worst-case scenarios in the mayoral candidate pool who have a chance of winning" and she didn't want to help them by diluting voting numbers.

Meanwhile, Southland District Council (SDC) has 5 nominations so far (with one further candidate who has intimated he is standing yet to register) and Gore District Council (GDC) two candidates.

All three incumbent mayors have indicated they will be seeking re-election.

However, as the last week for nominations commences, it's a different picture for councillors' positions, with many remaining uncontested.

The ICC currently has just 9 people vying for the 12 seats around its council table (8 Aug), however 3 of these have also been nominated for the mayoral position. The nine doesn't include Amundsen, however, who says she now intends to stand again as a councillor.

The GDC is doing slightly better at a boardroom level with nominations now received for all its Ward seats, but this still leaves a minimum of 3 people short (2: Gore Ward, 1: At large) for its council table.

The SDC is not fairing quite as well and currently requires a minimum of 5 more people to be nominated before Friday in order to fill all its boardroom seats.

A full SDC needs 12 councillors representing 5 Wards. However of the nine people who have put their names forward so far, two are competing for the same seat (Steward Island/Rakiura) and two are also standing for the mayoral position. The Waiau Aparima Ward currently has no nominations.

The situation is even more dire at the SDC community board level where only 19 people have put their names forward for the 43 available positions. Three community board nominates are also in the running for Ward positions.

SDC community subdivision seats are faring even worse with just 2 of a possible 13 seats having nominations at present.

Both the Mataura and Bluff Community Boards are currently without nominations. Each have 5 seats they need to fill (as at 8 Aug).

Licensing Trusts

Invercargill Licensing Trust - 7 nominations received for 6 available seats (as at 8 Aug).

Mataura Licensing Trust - 8 nominations received, 7 wards and 9 seats available. No nominations for Ward 7 at present (as at 8 Aug).

Gore and Districts Health Inc.

2 nominations received, 3 wards and 6 available seats available (as at 8 Aug).

Environment Southland

8 nominations received, 6 constituencies and 12 available seats. Vacancies still exist in the Invercargill-Rakiura and East-Dome regional constituencies.

Nominations for all local body elections close at 5pm on Friday (12 August).

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