By-elections could become a thing of the past in council under newly proposed state government regulations, stemming from a committee inquiry into electoral matters. 

It’s a change Cr Meskauskas said he’d fully support. 

“It’s a good move, it’s going to save a lot of money and save a fair bit of work for a lot of people,” the veteran councillor said.

Cr Meskauskas said he’d witnessed numerous “disruptive” by-elections in Maitland since his own election in 1988.

“You’ve got to get the electoral commission involved, staff from council involved and at that time council isn’t running with its full number of councillors,” he said.

“This is quite a sensible move, it would save a lot of time and money.”

Minister for Local Government Gabrielle Upton accepted all 10 recommendations from the inquiry on Tuesday. 

“Currently if a councillor resigns within 18 months of being elected, a by-election must be held to fill the vacancy,” Ms Upton said.

“Under these changes, by-elections will no longer need to be held and the vacancy can be filled by a vote countback process where the next candidate in line will be elected.”

The changes will be introduced for the 2020 local government elections. 

The changes would also deliver a new way to distribute preferences that she argued would be more transparent, fair and accurate. 

The new system would ensure all surplus votes are counted and then distributed according to preferences.