Councillor in the context of Scottish local government

Local government is the third level of government in Australia, administered with limited autonomy under the states and territories, and in turn beneath the federal government. Local government is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia, and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter the Constitution relating to local government were unsuccessful. Every state and territory government recognises local government in its own respective constitution. Unlike the two-tier local government system in Canada or the United States, there is (largely) only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction between counties and cities.

Local government in Australia is generally run by an elected council, and the area it administers is referred to by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as a local government area or LGA, each of which encompasses multiple suburbs and/or localities (roughly equivalent to neighbourhoods), often of different postcodes. LGAs are variously styled using terms such as "city", "town", "district", "municipality", "borough", "region" or "shire". These usually have geographic or historical significance, and there is rarely any legal distinction between them. For instance, cities and municipalities tend to apply to councils in urban and metropolitan areas, whereas districts and shires are found primarily in rural and regional areas. A local government area is also commonly known as a "city council", "local council", or simply a "council". Council members are generally known as councillors, and the head of a council is called the mayor, chairman or shire president. Some of Australia’s largest cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, use the historical title of lord mayor. Councillors are usually elected from single-member districts known as divisions or wards, whilst the mayor or president is directly elected by all the voters within that council area. However, the mayor is often entitled to style themselves as a councillor, and is considered an ex officio member of the council. As of August 2016, there were 547 local councils in Australia.

Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as councils. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive the majority of their funding from the Scottish Government, but operate independently and are accountable to their local electorates. Councils raise additional income via the Council Tax, a locally variable domestic property tax, and Business rates, a non-domestic property tax.

Councils are made up of councillors who are directly elected by the residents of the area they represent. Each council area is divided into a number of wards, and three or four councillors are elected for each ward. There are currently 1,226 elected councillors in Scotland.Local elections are normally held every five years and use the single transferable vote electoral system. The most recent election was the 2022 Scottish local elections and the next election will be the 2027 Scottish local elections.

The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and district councils, the electoral ward is the unit used by Welsh principal councils, while the electoral division is the unit used by English county councils and some unitary authorities. Each ward/division has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population counts can vary substantially. As of 2021 there are 8,694 electoral wards/divisions in the UK. An average area of wards or electoral divisions in the United Kingdom is 28.109 km (10.853 sq mi).

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) can refer to one of several ranked voting methods used in some cities and states in the United States. The term is not strictly defined, but most often refers to instant-runoff voting (IRV) or single transferable vote (STV), the main difference being whether only one winner or multiple winners are elected. At the federal and state level, instant-runoff voting is used for congressional and presidential elections in Maine; state, congressional, and presidential general elections in Alaska; and special congressional elections in Hawaii. Since 2025, it is also used for all elections in the District of Columbia.

Single transferable voting, only possible in multi-winner contests, is not currently used in state or congressional elections. It is used to elect city councillors in Portland, Oregon, Cambridge, Mass., and several other cities.

Sir Sadiq Aman Khan (born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as the third and current mayor of London since 2016. He was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft left and has been ideologically characterised as a social democrat.

Born in London into a Pakistani family, Khan earned a law degree from the University of North London. He subsequently worked as a solicitor specialising in human rights issues and chaired the Liberty advocacy group for three years. Joining the Labour Party, Khan was a councillor for the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994 to 2006 before being elected MP for Tooting at the 2005 general election. He was openly critical of several policies of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and new anti-terror legislation. Under Blair's successor Gordon Brown, Khan was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in 2008, later becoming Minister of State for Transport. A key ally of the next Labour leader, Ed Miliband, he served in Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Minister for London.

Pre-nominal letters are a title which is placed before the name of a person as distinct from a post-nominal title which is placed after the name. Examples of pre-nominal titles, for instance professional titles include Doctor, Captain, EUR ING (European Engineer), Ir. (ingenieur), Ts. (professional technologist), Ar. (architect), Sr. (surveyor), Br. (certified builder), Gs. (geologist), Mons. (monsignore), Cllr (Councillor), CA (Indian chartered accountant) and Professor.

These distinctive titles replace the standard honorifics used in polite address, indicating gender and, for women, marital status; the common English forms are Mr., Ms., Mrs. and Miss. These honorifics are not normally considered as titles.

Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is a local government for the City of Chennai in the Chennai Metropolitan Area of Tamil Nadu, India. Inaugurated on 29 September 1688, under a royal charter issued by King James II of England on 30 December 1687 as the Corporation of Madras, it is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside Great Britain. It is the largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu with an area of 426 km. It is headed by a mayor, who presides over 200 councillors, each of whom represents one of the 200 wards of the city. It is the second oldest corporation in the world after the City of London. The city limits, which had been expanded several times over the years, is currently coterminous with the Chennai district. It is one of the four municipal corporations located within the Chennai Metropolitan Area, the other three being the Tambaram Corporation, Avadi City Municipal Corporation and Kanchipuram Municipal Corporation.

Almería is a province in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. The province is divided into 103 municipalities. As of the 2024 Spanish census, Almería is the 21st most populous of Spain's 50 provinces, with 760,964 inhabitants, and the 27th largest by land area, spanning 8,773.05 square kilometres (3,387.29 sq mi). Municipalities are the most basic local political division in Spain and can only belong to one province. They enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their local administration, being in charge of tasks such as urban planning, water supply, lighting, roads, local police, and firefighting.

The organisation of municipalities in Spain is outlined by the local government law Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local (transl. Law 7/1985, of 2 April, Regulating the Bases of the Local Administration), which was passed by the Cortes Generales—Spain's national parliament—on 2 April 1985 and finalised by royal decree on 18 April 1986. Municipalities in Almería are also governed by the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, which includes provisions concerning their relations with Andalusia's autonomous government. All citizens of Spain are required to register in the municipality in which they reside. Each municipality is a corporation with independent legal personhood: its governing body is called the ayuntamiento (municipal council or corporation), a term often also used to refer to the municipal offices (city and town halls). The ayuntamiento is composed of the mayor (Spanish: alcalde), the deputy mayors (tenientes de alcalde) and the councillors (concejales), who form the plenary (pleno), the deliberative body. Municipalities are categorised by population for determining the number of councillors: three when the population is up to 100 inhabitants, five for 101–250, seven for 251–1,000, nine for 1,001–2,000, eleven for 2,001–5,000, thirteen for 5,001–10,000, seventeen for 10,001–20,000, twenty-one for 20,001–50,000, and twenty-five for 50,001–100,000. One councillor is added for every additional 100,000 inhabitants, with a further one included if the total would otherwise be even, to avoid tied votes.

Granada is a province in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. The province is divided into 174 municipalities. As of the 2024 Spanish census, Granada is the 17th most populous of Spain's 50 provinces, with 939,741 inhabitants, and the 15th largest by land area, spanning 12,645.41 square kilometres (4,882.42 sq mi). Municipalities are the most basic local political division in Spain and can only belong to one province. They enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their local administration, being in charge of tasks such as urban planning, water supply, lighting, roads, local police, and firefighting.

The organisation of municipalities in Spain is outlined by the local government law Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local (transl. Law 7/1985, of 2 April, Regulating the Bases of the Local Administration), which was passed by the Cortes Generales—Spain’s national parliament—on 2 April 1985 and finalised by royal decree on 18 April 1986. Municipalities in Granada are also governed by the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, which includes provisions concerning their relations with Andalusia's autonomous government. All citizens of Spain are required to register in the municipality in which they reside. Each municipality is a corporation with independent legal personhood: its governing body is called the ayuntamiento (municipal council or corporation), a term often also used to refer to the municipal offices (city and town halls). The ayuntamiento is composed of the mayor (Spanish: alcalde), the deputy mayors (tenientes de alcalde) and the councillors (concejales), who form the plenary (pleno), the deliberative body. Municipalities are categorised by population for determining the number of councillors: three when the population is up to 100 inhabitants, five for 101–250, seven for 251–1,000, nine for 1,001–2,000, eleven for 2,001–5,000, thirteen for 5,001–10,000, seventeen for 10,001–20,000, twenty-one for 20,001–50,000, and twenty-five for 50,001–100,000. One councillor is added for every additional 100,000 inhabitants, with a further one included if the total would otherwise be even, to avoid tied votes.

Huelva is a province in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. The province is divided into 79 municipalities. As of the 2024 Spanish census, Huelva is the 29th most populous of Spain's 50 provinces, with 535,734 inhabitants, and the 25th largest by land area, spanning 10,127.43 square kilometres (3,910.22 sq mi). Municipalities are the most basic local political division in Spain and can only belong to one province. They enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their local administration, being in charge of tasks such as urban planning, water supply, lighting, roads, local police, and firefighting.

The organisation of municipalities in Spain is outlined by the local government law Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local (transl. Law 7/1985, of 2 April, Regulating the Bases of the Local Administration), which was passed by the Cortes Generales—Spain’s national parliament—on 2 April 1985 and finalised by royal decree on 18 April 1986. Municipalities in Huelva are also governed by the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, which includes provisions concerning their relations with Andalusia's autonomous government. All citizens of Spain are required to register in the municipality in which they reside. Each municipality is a corporation with independent legal personhood: its governing body is called the ayuntamiento (municipal council or corporation), a term often also used to refer to the municipal offices (city and town halls). The ayuntamiento is composed of the mayor (Spanish: alcalde), the deputy mayors (tenientes de alcalde) and the councillors (concejales), who form the plenary (pleno), the deliberative body. Municipalities are categorised by population for determining the number of councillors: three when the population is up to 100 inhabitants, five for 101–250, seven for 251–1,000, nine for 1,001–2,000, eleven for 2,001–5,000, thirteen for 5,001–10,000, seventeen for 10,001–20,000, twenty-one for 20,001–50,000, and twenty-five for 50,001–100,000. One councillor is added for every additional 100,000 inhabitants, with a further one included if the total would otherwise be even, to avoid tied votes.