Hobart could be about to elect its first all-male council since the 1950s

Hobart is waiting to see whether it will elect an all-male city council, with a partial result leaving just one woman in the top nine spots and a handful of votes between her and the next candidate. 

Counting is continuing for this year's local government elections with 20 per cent of the vote counted for Hobart.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission said counting for Hobart council positions would continue once all vote counting for councils across the state had reached 20 per cent.

Tiffany Ashdown, a former political staffer for the independent Member for Franklin, Peter George, was sitting in the ninth and final spot this morning.

But incumbent Ben Lohberger was just three votes behind her when adjusted for preferences.

Incumbents Louise Elliot, Zelinda Sherlock and Louise Bloomfield are all currently off the pace, though not far behind Mr Lohberger.

Election analyst Kevin Bonham told 936 ABC Hobart it was a tight race for the nine council spots.

If Mr Lohberger overtakes Ms Ashdown and the other positions hold, the council would be made up entirely of men.

According to council records, it would be for the first time since an all-male council was broken in 1954 when lawyer Mabel Miller became the first woman elected to the council.

As of this morning, veteran journalist and author Charles Wooley was leading the mayoral race for Hobart City Council with 23.8 per cent of the vote.

Mr Bonham said early results appeared to show a swing in Hobart towards right-leaning candidates.

"It looks like a strong shift to the right on Hobart council compared to the last election [which] was a majority for the left,"

he said.

"This at the moment looks like a 5-4 majority for the right but that may change. The margin of that is only about 100 votes."

Huon Valley elects new mayor 

In Huon Valley, Hobart City Council communications manager Abby McKibben will become mayor after securing 50.17 per cent of the vote.

In Launceston, Matthew Garwood has been re-elected as mayor, claiming 53.2 per cent of the vote.

In a social media post last night, Mr Garwood said he was "absolutely blown away" to have four more years in the role.

"We ran a clean campaign. Very little signage, just getting out and letting the work speak for itself," he said in a social media post.

"I'm incredibly grateful for the confidence placed in me and absolutely stoked to see where this next term can take our community."

More than 85 per cent of voters returned their ballots this year, a slight increase compared with the last council elections.

Council amalgamations key focus for re-elected mayor

The re-elected mayor for Devonport, Alison Jarman, received more than 9,000 first-preference votes and said council amalgamations were a top priority for her.

Ms Jarman told ABC Northern Tasmania she had already contacted Premier Jeremy Rockliff about merging Devonport's bordering councils.

She said the four councils had already formed an alliance.

"Why not just go the next step and get to the point where we could have possibly the four councils as one?" she said.

New faces to fill Tasmania's councils

Several incumbent mayors to have retained their seats include Sue Hickey in Glenorchy, Mick Tucker in Break O'Day and Rachel Summers for Flinders Island.

Several first-time mayors have been elected, among them Greg Dawson for George Town, Rick Shegog for West Tamar, Stephanie Cameron for Meander Valley and Vonette Mead for Latrobe.

All four were deputy mayors of their council in the previous term.

This year, the number of councillors statewide have reduced following amendments to the local government legislation.

The number of seats within the state's five largest councils have reduced from 12 to nine, while the other councils will have seven spots.

Both King Island and Tasman councils had fewer nominations than council seats they are trying to fill, which meant a number of people were elected unopposed.