Labor on track to retain power in ACT election but lose ground to Liberals

Labor is on track to remain in power in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) alongside the Greens, despite losing ground to the Liberals.

As counting continued, the ABC election guru Antony Green called the result for the Labor-Greens coalition at 9.15pm local time on Saturday.

Despite his party suffering a negative 3.3% swing, the result means ACT’s Labor leader, Andrew Barr, will extend his record reign as chief minister beyond a decade. It is the seventh consecutive term of Labor.

With 13 seats the magic number to form government in the 25-member legislative assembly, Labor appears to have won 10 seats and the Greens three.

Labor managed to hold on to all its seats from the 2020 election.

By comparison, the Greens suffered a smaller swing against them of 1.7%, but due to the nature of the Hare-Clark system, shed half their seats.

The Liberals were on track to pick up one seat under their leader, Elizabeth Lee, and are likely to end up with 10 members.

But it was not enough to topple the 23-year-old government, with much of the vote share lost by Labor and the Greens soaked up by independents.

Fiona Carrick, in the electorate of Murrumbidgee, and Thomas Emerson in Kurrajong were on track to become the first independents elected in the ACT since 1998.