Your guide to the Brisbane council election

Brisbane's voters will turn out to the polls on Saturday in one of the most unusual elections in Australian history, amid a global pandemic and record numbers of early votes being cast.

Statewide, 77 councils will be elected or re-elected by more than 3 million Queenslanders, including two councils that have been under the watchful eye of an administrator.

Fifteen mayors will be re-elected or elected unopposed and nine mayors will retire at this election, while in other areas the race for mayor is an unknown quantity.

Why is the election going ahead?

Despite concerns about the impacts of coronavirus and messaging around staying home and being physically distant, the state government has urged voters to perform their democratic duty either by voting early or on Saturday.

The state's Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, says it is "perfectly safe" to vote, with the Electoral Commission of Queensland changing the normal way elections are run in response.

Brisbane City Hall will have a new council next week.Credit: AAP/Darren England

Voters are urged to bring their own pencils, use hand sanitiser available at polling booths, maintain a minimum of 1.5 square metres between each other, and if there are long lines, to come back at a later time.

The ECQ has put on additional staff to manage record numbers of telephone vote registrations - more than 30,000 - which is only available to people who are self-isolated, or ill and unable to attend a polling booth.

More than a million voters have already cast their vote through early polling or postal votes.

Who is running in Brisbane?

In Brisbane, the primary contest is between incumbent LNP lord mayor Adrian Schrinner and Labor's lord mayoral candidate Pat Condren.

Instead of how-to-vote cards, candidates have had to improvise with large posters people can take photos of on their phone.Credit: Lucy Stone

The LNP administration has held the majority in council with a total of 19 wards and the lord mayor, while Labor has five councillors, the Greens one, and one independent.

Labor is targeting the lord mayoralty and several LNP wards, and the ward held by Greens councillor Jonathan Sri (The Gabba).

The Greens particularly want to win a few more wards away from the LNP to bolster their representation on council, and are running early childhood educator and midwife Kath Angus as their lord mayoral candidate.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says the elections are safe to go ahead.Credit: AAP

Cr Schrinner is formerly the deputy mayor, and was elected by the LNP party room to the top job when former lord mayor Graham Quirk announced he was stepping down in March last year.

That gave the LNP a year to reset their council team, which they did by seeing several incumbent councillors out the door and replacing them with fresh faces. This was done without byelections as it was all performed within a year of the March 28 council elections.

Those new councillors have now had several months to boost their chances of retaining their wards citywide, but some are in particularly marginal wards that may be lost to Labor or the Greens.

Meanwhile, in the west of Brisbane, an internal LNP stoush has erupted into controversy with former LNP councillor Kate Richards now running as an independent.

And one ward is being avoided by both major parties, with Tennyson's independent councillor Nicole Johnston unlikely to see a serious challenge against her powerful personal preference vote.

What are their platforms?

Cr Schrinner has spent the last year building up a futuristic image of Brisbane - one with large city parks, more pedestrian and cycling bridges, and a turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro. He has leant heavily on the work put in by former LNP mayors - Graham Quirk and Campbell Newman - as proof the LNP are the safe bet for Brisbane.

In the past weeks the LNP have pivoted their message from that green image to "experience matters" as the coronavirus pandemic grips Brisbane.

Former journalist Pat Condren's focus has been two-fold, starting off with claims the LNP is "rorting" council systems for their own benefit, and then pledging greater focus on suburban issues such as fixing footpaths and dangerous level crossings.

Kath Angus for the Greens has broadened her vision to a community that focuses on the overall health of connection, targeting homelessness and giving residents a greater voice in neighbourhood planning.

She would also ensure developers pay more into Brisbane's community, and public transport would be free in off-peak-times.

Other candidates for lord mayor include Karagh-Mae Kelly for the Animal Justice Party, a small business owner and former investigator for the RSPCA, whose platform is one of the targeting climate emergency.

Where can I vote?

In Brisbane there will be more than 200 polling booths open citywide, including Brisbane City Hall.

A full list of each polling booth is available here on the ECQ website.

This will be an unusual voting day - there will be no democracy sausages, no cake stalls, and no fetes.

When you go to vote, you won't be harangued by volunteers eager to thrust their parties' how-to-vote cards at you - that's been banned by the ECQ due to hygiene concerns.

Social distancing means you might wait in a queue longer than normal, with more space between yourself and your fellow electors.

Remember to take your own pencil, wash your hands or use hand sanitiser available at each booth, and don't stay around the area after voting.

When will we have a result?

We don't know.

The ECQ doesn't expect to have a result on Saturday night, partially because more than 570,000 people have registered for postal votes statewide - an unprecedented number.

Counting the votes will begin at 6pm as normal on Saturday, but there will be new restrictions for party scrutineers who normally watch the counting closely.

They will not be able to observe the count under way, due to social distancing rules.

We may have a result by Sunday, or it may be later in the week.