Lord Mayoral candidate Martin Haese says more than 100 of his election posters have been stolen.

Rival candidate Mark Hamilton says up to 50 of his posters have also gone missing.

“There has certainly been an element of skullduggery going on in this Adelaide City Council election,” Haese told InDaily.

“We have noticed that we have lost in excess of 100 corflute posters, gone missing in the depths of the night.

“Losing 20 per cent of the coflutes would certainly be in the thousands (of dollars lost).”

Hamilton has three hypotheses to explain the abduction of his campaign signs.

“People who support your political opponents are a possibility, obviously,” he said.

“There’s also a possibility that it’s people who don’t approve of election signs being displayed at elections.

“The third is a combination of the first two.

“I’ve noticed that the closer to the election day we’ve come, the more that has occurred, which sort of favours the political one.”

While unwilling to accuse anyone in particular of the thefts, Haese accused the Hamilton campaign team of breaching council regulations, which forbid more than one poster per pole.

“(Hamilton’s) team is placing Hamilton corflutes often above and below the Martin Haese corflutes,” Haese said.

“Myself and my team have been very diligently following the rules.”

Hamilton said he wasn’t aware of the council rule banning more than one poster per pole.

Fellow Lord Mayoral candidate Kelly Henderson has complained to Adelaide City Council, accusing Hamilton’s team of erecting posters too low to the ground, and posters which do not contain the name of the printer, as required by council rules.

Henderson says she has no plans to put up posters of her own.

All three candidates rejected any suggestion they or their campaign team had taken any other candidate’s election signs down.

Local Government Association President David O’Loughlin told InDaily in relation to the alleged thefts that, “sometimes passionate people do passionate things”.

Hamilton said the posters were of mutual benefit to everyone vying for election on Adelaide City Council, because they created awareness about the elections, at which voting is voluntary and postal.

“They are part of creating awareness not just for the candidate, but of the fact that there’s an election,” he said.

“I don’t think the election is going to be won or lost on corflutes; hopefully it’ll be won or lost on policy.”

Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood, who is seeking re-election, doesn’t use corflutes in his campaigning.

InDaily has sought comment from Yarwood and Lord Mayoral candidate Michael Henningson.

The mail-out of postal ballots began on Monday. Polls close November 7 at 5pm.