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1997 Northern Territory general election

← 1994 30 August 1997 (1997-08-30) 2001 →
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	79.0 ( 1.7 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Shane Stone Maggie Hickey Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 26 May 1995 16 April 1996 Leader's seat Port Darwin Barkly Last election 17 seats 7 seats Seats before 16 8 Seats won 18 7 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 41,722 29,365 Percentage 54.5% 38.5% Swing 2.6 2.9 TPP 57.9% 42.1% TPP 1.6 1.6
Chief Minister before election Shane Stone Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Shane Stone Country Liberal

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday August 30, 1997, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP).

Shane Stone continued as Chief Minister.

During the previous term, the CLP had lost the seat of Fannie Bay to Labor in a by-election. The CLP did not win the seat back, but managed to take MacDonnell from Labor and Nelson after Independent Noel Padgham-Purich retired.

Retiring MPs

Labor

• Neil Bell MLA (MacDonnell)

Country Liberal

• Fred Finch MLA (Leanyer)
• Rick Setter MLA (Jingili)

Independent

• Noel Padgham-Purich MLA (Nelson)

Results

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	41,722	54.67	2.76	18	+1
	Labor	29,365	38.48	2.90	7	±0
	Independents	4,327	5.67	0.21	0	-1
	Democrats	484	0.63	0.55	0	±0
	Greens	420	0.55	0.20	0	±0
Total		76,318	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		76,318	94.83
Invalid/blank votes		4,161	5.17	+1.2
Total votes		80,479	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		101,886	78.99	-1.7
	Country Liberal		57.9
	Labor		42.1
Total

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Seats changing hands

Post-election pendulum

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in the Legislative Assembly according to the percentage point margin they are held by on a two-party-preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.

References

• Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

• 1997 elections in Australia
• Elections in the Northern Territory
• 1990s in the Northern Territory
• August 1997 events in Australia