There are in excess of 200 elected representatives in local government - styled councillors for the most part - across 29 councils, and all their seats will be up for grabs.

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While most incumbents will likely recontest, we've already seen some of the leading luminaries announce that they will be calling time on their council careers.

In the North, the biggest of those is Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten, who will not recontest his place on the council come October. There will, no doubt, be a host of new faces elected to sit around the council tables; some who may have run unsuccessfully before and others realising more recently held ambitions.

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This year, there will be an added dimension to the local government elections with the introduction of compulsory voting.

The Liberal government has not explained particularly well why this change will be beneficial, and the fact voting will still be by post makes it all but impossible to enforce.

Yet it will make the elections a little different, with even more attention to be paid to the rate of ballot papers returned.

What won't be new is that we will see a plethora of single issue candidates, along with those who will show that they really don't understand the role of councils.

Unfortunately, some will get elected.

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This will contribute to, or at least not help, the problem of councils being racked by division and behaviour that generally detracts from their serving their communities.

Mike Gaffney, a MLC who had 20 years on the Latrobe Council, including as mayor, is one who is concerned about growing dysfunction in local government.

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As he says, while councillors are elected as individuals, they must be able to work as a team and "be prepared to work hard and do your homework". It's in everyone's interests for intending candidates to go in to it all eyes wide open.

Still, at the end of the day, it will be up to voters who they elect to their local council.

Hopefully, given some of the behaviour and outcomes we have all witnessed since the last election, candidates - including incumbents - will be closely scrutinised.

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