Basil Zempilas got to be "lord mayor" of his "city" off the back of one thousand eight hundred and fifty five votes.

29.4% of the vote. It's first past the post, so no preferences.

WA local government elections are a joke

in contrast, over 48,000 votes were cast for Clover Moore. 57% of the total.

Some people are asking how this happens. A few things are going on. Firstly, the City of Perth is *tiny*. Less than 30,000 residents. The Perth metro area has over 2m residents but they’re divided between 29 councils.

Sydney has 35 councils. The Greater Brisbane area has only a handful of councils. This means inner Perth has a bunch of little pocket boroughs. Which you could argue is okay, but it does mean the grand title “Lord Mayor” is applied to someone representing a tiny area.

Having a very small council covering the CBD tends to mean businesses dominate the council. WA, like most Australian states, give votes to property owners. In the City of Sydney, which includes a substantial area of inner suburbia, that’s less of an influence.

But businesses have the upper hand in capital city councils in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth which mostly just cover the CBD.

And this used to be the case in Sydney. The City has tended to grow in size under Labor governments (1948, 1982, 2003) and then shrink under Liberal governments (1968, 1988)

So the City that existed from 1988 to 2003 looked like this.

Secondly, voting is voluntary. Turnout was about 40% off a base of around 15-16,000 enrolled.

Finally first past the post. Zempilas polled under 30% but that was enough to win in a crowded field. 70% voted for someone else without the option to express a second preference.