The Council is made up of either five or seven Councillors, depending on the number of candidates standing for an election, and its meetings are chaired by the Administrator.

If there are fewer than six nominations, the election will be postponed for a period of up to six months, during which time there will be no Island Council.

This first Council was dissolved by order of the Governor of Saint Helena on 24 October 2005, and a new election was held on 16 November 2005, a total of 697 electors choosing between 10 candidates contesting the seven seats.

[6] Six of the seven members resigned in January 2007 in the belief that they were "assisting to legitimise a democracy that doesn’t really exist on Ascension Island".

As a result of the boycott, the election was abandoned, and the governor suspended the Island Council for 12 months.

This followed the dissolution of the previous Council on 1 September 2019, in accordance with the Island Government (Ascension) Ordinance 2008.