The Otago Regional Council will continue to use the first-past-the-post voting system despite concerns about the confusion it might cause voters given other local bodies use an alternative system.
The council held an extraordinary meeting this week to discuss the requirement under the Electoral Act for it to decide by September 12 if it wanted to change its electoral system to single transferable vote (STV).
In Dunedin, the regional council's voting papers go out with those of the Dunedin City Council and Southern District Health Board, both of which use STV.
Cr Gerry Eckhoff said he believed the public struggled to understand first past the post (FPP), let alone the STV system.
"It becomes terribly confusing."
As councillors were not aligned to political parties and stood on their own merits, FPP was a better system for the regional council, he said.
"I see little point in changing."
Cr Duncan Butcher said while some people in Dunedin might be confused by the different voting systems, elsewhere in the region, he believed it was only the health boards which used the STV system.
Under STV the number of invalid votes was quite high, he said.
Councillors also decided to leave a decision on whether to establish Maori constituencies until after the council had received feedback from local iwi representatives.
Voting for the next regional council local body election in 2013 would be held under the FPP system unless 5% of the voting public demanded a poll be held on the topic.
