There will be two empty seats at the first meeting of the new town council in St-Pierre-Jolys because not enough people were nominated to fill it.

The incoming mayor and two councillors were all acclaimed to their positions because there was no one running against them, a common occurrence in the town, about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg, which hasn't had a competitive election since 2006.

The new council will appoint a special sub-committee to gather names of potential candidates. The committee will then present the list to council, which will then appoint people to fill the two remaining seats.

St-Pierre-Jolys resident Nicole Forest-Lavergne isn't worried about the lack of competitive elections in the town.

"To us that means that people are happy with the council. They're happy with what they're doing. the village is moving forward. So to us, it's positive," she said.

Forest-Lavergne says the current council is accessible, holding public meetings and taking questions from residents.

The reason more people in town aren't running for office isn't that they aren't interested, she says, it's just that they're busy.

"I think that people in small communities are very busy with volunteering all over the place. Because a lot of organizations operate with volunteers only. So they figure if everything's going well, why fix it if it isn't broken?"

Mayor-elect Raymond Maynard agrees that not having competitive elections is a sign that people are happy with their government.

The town almost had its first competitive mayoral race in more than a decade, but the other person running, Luc Nadeau, passed away at age 57.

Not having enough councillors to fill all the seats doesn't signal a problem with democracy in town, it's just a matter of communication.

"I think it has more to do with maybe not enough people talking about it in town and getting people engaged to try to help the town grow," he said.

Not having a full council does present some challenges for himself and the other two councillors. It means sitting councillors will have to fill seats on the town's various committees until the new councillors are appointed.

The council has enough members to fill quorum, however, meaning council can hold meetings and make decisions, because more than half of the seats are filled.

St-Pierre-Jolys is far from the only town in Manitoba that hasn't had competitive elections. A CBC News analysis earlier this year found that in 2014, nearly 40 per cent of all elected municipal politicians in Manitoba ran uncontested.

Over 42 per cent of all municipal governments in the province had a council that is more than half acclaimed. Fourteen municipalities were like St-Pierre-Jolys, where all their local politicians were acclaimed.

University of Manitoba political scientist Roger Turenne is from St-Pierre-Jolys. He said there are many reasons why fewer people run for office at the municipal level, including lack of interest, low pay, high time commitment and occasionally toxic work environments.

"There are small-town potentates that like to throw their weight around, and so that has a discouraging effect," he said.

Maynard said neither he nor the incoming councillors will sit on the committee that will compile the list of council candidates.

"We don't want anybody in town to think that we're cherry-picking our council trying to stack the council with people that we know will do what we want them to do. We want people to come on council that we feel that will better the town, no matter who it is," he said.