Former city manager Vern Robson said he had always been a firm believer that Warrnambool really needed nine councillors.

"And if we have three wards with three councillors, it would be a lot easier for candidates to manage nominating in a ward than having to have 24 across the whole city," Mr Robson said.

"I just feel the community would be better represented if we had nine."

He said the complexities of the preferential voting system made it difficult for the Victorian Electoral Commission to count votes - something that has taken five days.

Mr Robson, who was a scrutineer for the election count, said there was a large number of informal votes at this election which showed many had become confused trying to fill out 1 to 24 on ballot papers.

He said if there were three wards of three candidates each, it would be a lot easier.

About nine per cent of the 23,473 votes cast in the Warrnambool election were informal and in 2016, where there was also a large field of candidates, it was a similar story with more than 2000 votes declared informal.

In Moyne, where there was eight fewer candidates, about six per cent of votes were informal but in Corangamite, which operates under a ward system, just 1.83 per cent of votes were informal.

Mr Robson said that when he first came to Warrnambool there were 15 councillors which was then reduced to 12 in the late 1970s when it was resubdivided into four wards.

"There was a bit of changing of the guard at that time," he said.

"When we had 12 councillors we had four wards and it worked beautifully.

"We used to have annual elections of councillors in those days."

Mr Robson said that every eight years there was an electoral representational review - where municipal boundaries were looked at - and the next one fell due in the new council's current term.

"The next time Warrnambool's review comes up, the new council might like to see the advantages of going to a ward system and perhaps increasing the number of councillors by two because I think we do need to have the community represented," he said.

"When it comes up it would be good for the incoming councillors to think about what would be an appropriate system for Warrnambol."

Earlier this year, former local government minister Adem Somyurek had proposed a move to single member wards for all councils - with the exception of smaller rural shires.

Just seven of Victoria's 79 councils now have single-member wards, compared to 43 in 2003.

Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.