West Coast's regional council has voted on its preferred electoral system for the next council elections in 2028, despite regional councils being abolished before then.

Meeting last week, the West Coast Regional Council (WCRC) were asked to choose between First Past the Post (FPP) and the Single Transferrable Vote (STV), with councillors voting unanimously for FPP.

All councils are required to pass a formal resolution on the voting system before September 12 under the Electoral Act 2001 and notify the public about the chosen system for the next local body elections.

Councils throughout New Zealand have just submitted their amalgamation proposals under the Government's Head Start Pathway.

WCRC has supported the proposal from the Westland and Grey district councils for a single unitary authority. Regardless, regional councils will be legislated out of existence by the 2028 elections.

WCRC office of the chief executive group manager Jo Field told councillors they were still required to choose their preferred voting system.

"We have a requirement to adopt which voting system we would like to use for future elections, noting that it is highly likely we won't be having a future election, but we are still required by law to undertake this process."

Cr Ashley Cassin asked if it was guaranteed that there will be no council elections for the next triennium.

"We have talked about unlikely events, is it not 100% guaranteed there will not be regional council elections for the next triennium?"

Chief executive Darryl Lew responded that councils still have to follow existing laws, even though councils around the country were questioning such procedures in the face of the pending abolitions.

"Government is signalling what it wants to do with reform ... but it is signalling that not through any statutory processes or changes in the law or formal statutory indications," Mr Lew said.

"There has been commentary out of the local government sector across New Zealand noting that and also noting that a lot of these procedural matters are still in play and we have to still go through it, such as a representation review which actually costs time and resources.

"But they have not removed all of that."

Cr Peter Ewen noted there had been no appetite from the opposition parties to change the local government reforms.

"So, it is full steam ahead, no matter who is in."

• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air