After one of the most unusual council campaigns in Queensland's history - if not Australia's - voters went to the polls on Saturday to decide who would lead them through the next four years.

But by late Saturday night, for most councils that was still an unknown as the Electoral Commission of Queensland's preliminary vote inched forward slowly and technical issues with the ECQ's website caused headaches.

An election official sanitises the ballot boxes. Credit:Jono Searle/Getty Images

Only small percentages for most votes were released by late Saturday night. Volunteers dealt not only with counting votes, but managing hygiene measures put in place to protect them during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Technical issues are slowing the display of count results on the ECQ website," an ECQ spokeswoman said on Saturday night.