The council of the City of Sydney independent candidates, pictured with lord mayor Clover Moore. Credit:James Brickwood That is more than 13 times the 1709 non-residential voters who registered at the last City of Sydney elections in 2012. The increase could have a significant impact on the result of the council election. There were about 70,000 votes cast in the 2012 elections. On past results, Cr Moore would be expected to retain her position as Sydney's lord mayor. She received just under 35,000 votes in 2012. But the increased power of the business vote could rob her of her majority of support among fellow councillors. Because she has had a majority of support on council, Cr Moore has largely not had to horse-trade with other councillors to implement her priorities.

Power under threat: Clover Moore. Credit:Janie Barrett The City has had to spend up to $12 million implementing the controversial and confusing business voting changes, with funds that came from the council's ratepayers. To do so it wrote to 138,000 "property owners, corporations, occupiers, sole traders and others" to tell them they were potentially required to register to vote. However, not all were eligible. "There are a number of reasons why a person may be included on the City's register but not on the final electoral rolls – including if they are already on the City's residential roll, or if they are not an Australian citizen," the City said in a statement on Monday morning. Cr Moore said she hoped "businesses will see the benefit of stable, corruption-free governance that's focused on creating lasting positive change for our city".

The long-standing mayor said any criticisms of the laws needed "to be directed to the Shooters and the Liberals who cobbled together this undemocratic gerrymander, assuming it would deliver them a block of conservative voters". "I do wonder if the Liberals are actually concerned about business voters, why they aren't rolling out similar legislation across the state?," she said. The ABC's election analyst, Antony Green, said the changes were "clearly an attempt to disadvantage Clover Moore". Mr Green said there might be policy reasons to give the state a greater say over decisions affecting Sydney's central business district, but those policies could be implemented directly. "What you don't do is change the method of enrolment and voting to achieve that," he said.

Cr Moore's main competitors for the mayoralty and for other spots on council include the Liberals' Christine Forster, independent Angela Vithoulkas who has secured the support of former Liberal councillor Edward Mandla, and Labor's Linda Scott. Cr Vithoulkas criticised the council and Cr Moore for the council's failure to register a larger pool of non-residential voters. "It is a disgrace that once again millions of dollars of City of Sydney ratepayers' money has been squandered," she said. The executive director of the Sydney Business Chamber, Patricia Forsythe, said it was "appropriate that business has a vote in the City of Sydney given the significance of the rate income that comes from business". But Ms Forsythe said it would not be possible to determine for whom businesses would be inclined to vote.

"I have no sense that there is a strong view for or against any candidate," Ms Forsythe said. A spokesman for the Local Government Minister, Paul Toole, said the changes "increase the democratic participation of all ratepayers in the City of Sydney". "Up until now non-residential voters only exercised 2.1 per cent of the vote although they contribute 78.5 per cent of the City of Sydney's rate revenue," the spokesman said. Labor said it would repeal legislation requiring the City of Sydney to maintain the register of non-residential voters. "Thanks to Premier Mike Baird, ratepayers are going to be slugged an extra $12 million so businesses who don't register voluntarily are forced to do so," local government spokesman Peter Primrose said.