The majority of votes for councillors were relatively close, meaning special votes still to be counted could make a difference to the provisional results.
For instance, there was a small margin between Robert Guyton and Maurice Rodway, with only 13 votes between them in the Invercargill-Rakiura constituency.
New councillors include Allan Baird, Peter McDonald, Lloyd Esler and Bonnie Mager.
Mr Esler, who was formerly an Invercargill city councillor, received the most votes of any candidate, with 10,541.
He previously said he wanted to pursue other interests more related to the environment sector and decided Environment Southland would be a "good opportunity".
Allan Baird, former Southland Federated Farmers president, will represent the Fiordland constituency while Mr McDonald will represent Hokonui, after receiving 1111 votes against the sitting councillor, Grant Hubber, who had 935.
Ms Mager, whose campaign included a controversial video, won one of six seats in the Invercargill-Rakiura constituency, contested by 13 candidates.
Councillors who were not re-elected include Mr Hubber and Mr Rodway, while returning councillors, provisionally, are Neville Cook, Robert Guyton, Lyndal Ludlow, Eric Roy and Nicol Horrell as well as unopposed Lloyd McCallum, Jeremy McPhail and David Stevens.
