WITH electoral officials set to start the count tonight, tally results will soon reveal who will be Southern Downs mayor for the next council term.

One of the first duties of the new council will be to elect a deputy mayor from the eight elected councillors.

The Department of Local Government said councils must hold a meeting within 14 days after the election, and this is typically when councillors make the declaration of office authorised by the council CEO.

Southern Downs CEO David Keenan said councillors would be officially sworn in and a deputy would be appointed within the coming weeks.

"In accordance with section 175 of the Local Government Act 2009 and Section 5.2 of Council's Code of Meeting Practice Policy, the election of the Deputy Mayor will occur at the first statutory meeting of the new council," Mr Keenan said.

"Once the council has been sworn in, nominations will be called from the elected members for the position of deputy mayor.

"Councillors may nominate themselves or another councillor for the position of deputy mayor.

"Voting must be by a show of hand and may not be by secret ballot."

As Southern Downs is a wholly postal voting region, it is unclear when the first council session will be held, but Mr Keenan said there was no agenda slated for the meeting.

"We don't do much at the first meeting other than elect the deputy and a chair or deputy chair to the Disaster Management Group, because those responsibilities start immediately," he said.

"There are no committees at the first meeting and the only one we'd look at straight away is appointing an independent chair to the Audit and Risk Management Committee which is required under the Local Government Act."

Councillors also have the right to be involved in the appointment of other senior council staff.

In particular, section 196 (4) of the Local Government Act provides senior executive employees are to be appointed by a panel comprising the mayor, the CEO, and either the chairperson of a committee if the senior employee reports to a single committee, or the deputy mayor if the senior executive employee reports to more than one committee.

Councillors are also required to complete the prescribed form for the register of interests for themselves and relatives and lodge it with the CEO within 30 days of the election and keep it updated during their term.