Three people are vying for the mayoral chains and an election is required in each of the four wards.
Incumbent mayor Tamah Alley is being challenged by Roxburgh resident and Challenging Councils’ founder Mark Quinn, and "born and bred" Cromwell resident Charlie Sanders.
Mrs Alley said she was delighted with the number of candidates across the board.
"This is democracy at work."
Whoever won the mayoral election would have a mandate from the voters, she said.
The Cromwell and Vincent wards each have four council seats after an extra was added to Vincent last year following a representation review.
A review is required every six years to consider the number of elected representatives and how they are elected to ensure each elected member represents roughly the same number of people so all votes are of about the same value.
The population of each ward, divided by the number of elected members, must be no more than 10% or smaller than the population of the entire district divided by the total elected members.
After last year’s review, an extra seat was added to Vincent rather than the removing one from Cromwell, to balance representation.
For this year’s election nine candidates have been nominated for Cromwell and 11 for Vincent.
The Maniototo and Teviot Valley wards each have one council seat to fill and both have two candidates competing for the role.
In Vincent, candidates include former Central Otago District Council planning and infrastructure group manager Louise van der Voort and Gill Booth, who is also standing for the Teviot Valley Community Board. While Ms Booth lives in the Teviot ward, her nominators live in the Vincent ward.
Cromwell candidates include a mix of familiar and new faces but current councillor Nigel McKinlay is not among them.
Community board elections will be hotly contested with high numbers of candidates, many of them new to local government.
In Teviot, current chairman Norman Dalley is not standing again. Sitting board members — Curtis Pannett, Mark Jessop and Gill Booth — are standing again and being challenged by four other nominees.
Mr Pannett and Ms Booth are also standing for a council seat — Mr Pannett in Teviot ward and Ms Booth in Vincent ward.
The entire Maniototo Community Board is restanding and have three challengers for their seats. Similarly, the Vincent Community Board has four current members and councillor Martin McPherson standing, along with two newcomers to the role.
Just two of the Cromwell Community Board members are standing again and eight community members have put their hands up for one of four seats.
