Michael Gunner’s Labor team is expected to retain government in the Northern Territory, where counting continues in a knife-edge election.

August 23, 2020

The Northern Territory will have to wait at least another day to find out if incumbent Labor has polled enough votes to form a majority government.

Vote counting resumed on Sunday morning in the knife-edge election, which is the first major political test of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hours earlier, Chief Minister Michael Gunner told supporters he would lead a Labor government following Saturday’s election.

“Labor is in front on the votes, Labor is in front on the seats and tonight I can tell you I am very confident Labor will form the next government,” he said in a late-night speech.

The battle is coming down to a handful of key seats including Arnhem, Barkly, Brennan, Braitling, Daly, Katherine and Namatjira.

Labor was ahead on primary votes in Arnhem and Katherine on Sunday but the two-party preferred count has to be checked after the wrong candidates’ names were used.

The party was also ahead of the Country Liberal Party in Barkly by 102 two-party preferred when vote counting ended for the day.

The race is tighter in Daly and Namatjira, where the CLP led Labor by seven and 25 votes respectively on a two-party preferred basis.

It was also neck-and-neck in Brennan and Braitling, where the CLP has also edged ahead of Labor by 48 and 105 votes respectively on a two-party preferred basis.

In the Alice Springs seat of Araluen, Territory Alliance candidate Robyn Lambley leads the CLP’s Damien Ryan by just 26 votes.

About 4000 postal votes were counted on Sunday, providing further insight into the seat of the Port of Darwin, where Labor is ahead of the CLP by 211 votes on a two-party preferred basis.

On Saturday night, Labor secured 38.9 per cent of the primary vote to the CLP’s 31.8 per cent.

Mr Gunner’s team was on track to take at least 12 seats in the 25-seat assembly but on Sunday, two seats swung back to the CLP.

Despite this, Labor scrutineers expect 13 seats will be secured, delivering a majority. Labor won 18 seats in the 2016 poll.

Mr Gunner hugged and shook hands with supporters in Darwin as he arrived to address the party faithful and media, despite strict rules on social distancing being the norm across the country.

He paid tribute to health workers, police and other frontline staff who had helped the NT get through the pandemic with only 33 cases of COVID-19.

“2020 – bloody hell,” he said.

“It’s not over yet.”

Earlier in the evening, CLP leader Lia Finocchiaro stepped up to the podium in a positive mood, having lifted her party’s stocks from the two seats it took into the election.

It could pick up as many as nine seats but currently appears on track to clinch seven or eight.

The 35-year-old lawyer, who has not conceded defeat, said she had started a “new generation” for the CLP.

“There are still a lot of votes to count but if there is one thing I know it is that the CLP is back.”

The Territory Alliance formed by former chief minister Terry Mills was struck a blow, with the party leader on track to lose his seat of Blain, ending two decades in politics.

However, Mr Mills did not concede on Saturday night and remained positive the NT needed an alternative to the major parties.

A formal declaration of the poll is not scheduled until September 7, three days after postal votes close.

Counting continues on Monday, with recounts of the two-party preferred ballots for Arnhem, Blain, Fong Lim, Johnston and Katherine.