Polls set to close soon in the ACT as Canberra waits to learn the ...

Forever government?

27 minutes agoSat 19 Oct 2024 at 6:44am

Let's get you up to speed on ACT politics

48 minutes agoSat 19 Oct 2024 at 6:22am

Well, polls have closed in the ACT.

Now we wait...

Our political reporter Patrick Bell is currently at Labor HQ, here's what he's hearing inside.

"Labor insiders are confident the party’s vote will hold up reasonably well.

It currently holds two seats in each of the five electorates, and it would take a dire result in any given electorate for Labor to fall to just one.

The best prospect for a pickup is a third seat in Ginninderra, where the Liberal campaign has endured a fair bit of disruption.

But Labor sources have also told the ABC it’s possible some incumbent MLAs are defeated by other Labor candidates.

Police Minister Mick Gentleman in Brindabella, and Suzanne Orr in Yerrabi, are two Labor members who may face tough battles to be re-elected."

As we said earlier, it would take a major upset for Labor to lose power tonight, and it's Elizabeth Lee who's hoping to be that upset.

Lee has been leader of the Canberra Liberals since October 2020 and represents the electorate of Kurrajong.

During the campaign she told ABC's Stateline she's aiming high and looking to win with big ticket items like a new housing development in Kowen Forest and a stadium for the city.

Here she is out voting today with her family.

Our democracy sausage correspondent Monte Bovill has been enjoying a food tour of the polling booths in the ACT.

Here's what he has to say:

"What an exciting day it has been already!

55 polling stations have been open across the city, and almost every single one had a fundraiser of some sort.

I spoke to volunteers at barbecues and cake stalls at a number of schools, all of which say they have been run off their feet.

At Red Hill Primary School, cinnamon scrolls were very popular, with money raised going towards a new water bubbler and cricket nets.

Further south, books, plants, sausages and cakes were on offer at Mawson Primary School.

They were raising funds for a playground expansion and bike shelters.

Year five student Thea was also selling painted rocks - so cool!

At Melrose High School in Pearce, the Lake Tuggeranong Sea Scouts had a sausage sizzle and cake stall.

Up the road at Curtin Prime School, I'm told the 'frog in a pond' jelly sold out fast."

Okay Charlie, there's been chat in the newsroom about my use of acronyms already so you are not the only one...

Atm = at the moment.

As my colleague political reporter Patrick Bell wrote, a seventh consecutive Labor win would be unparalleled in Australia in the 21st century.

To give you an idea of how long it's been — in the same year Labor came to power, 2001, the iPod had only just been unveiled and the Nokia 3310 mobile phone was widely in use.

That was the year Survivor by Destiny's Child and No Angel by Dido were topping music charts, and the first Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films were released.

While it's clearly been a while, Chief Minister Andrew Barr insists his party is "fresh" and full of energy.

While we will be keeping you up to date here online, ABC election team is gearing up to bring you live coverage of the count this evening from its election centre at the National Museum.

James Glenday (with a cameo from the ABC's election specialist Casey Briggs) had an early look.

Key Event

27m agoSat 19 Oct 2024 at 6:44am

Described by some as a possible "forever government", ACT Labor has been in office for 23 years.

It's the longest-running current Labor government in Australia by a country mile (eg 20 years).

And, our election specialist Antony Green reckons it would take a pretty major upset to change that.

So, will this government truly be forever?

Will Chief Minister Andrew Barr lead Labor to re-election for a third time?

We are hoping this isn’t the first time you are finding out there’s an election on...

For these young Canberrans this week, they found out with just enough time before they headed to the polls.

Our reporter Jostina Basta asked them what they thought about the election, and politics in general.

Key Event

48m agoSat 19 Oct 2024 at 6:22am

So you might have heard we do things a little differently in the ACT when it comes to our government setup.

I won't bore you with the details on what a Hare-Clark system is (and I don't want to embarrass myself by trying to do so correctly).

So here's the TLDR.

We have five, five-member electorates.

And atm Labor makes up government with the help of the Greens.

The Greens have six seats, Labor has 10, and the Liberals have eight (they used to have nine until recently… we will get into that a bit later).

Thirteen seats are required to make up a majority government (which has only happened once in the ACT).

Here are our electorates, and how many candidates are in the running for them:

• Brindabella — 24 candidates

• Ginninderra — 33 candidates

• Kurrajong — 34 candidates

• Murrumbidgee — 27 candidates

• Yerrabi — 31 candidates

Hello, I'm Niki Burnside and I'll be sharing the blogging duties with Georgia.

We'll also be joined by some of our ABC colleagues, including political reporters and analysts, throughout the night.

Polls are due to close at 6pm, at which point the results will start to come in fairly quickly.

We'll be providing you with regular updates here and on our live broadcast, which you can tune into on ABC TV.

Thanks to the wonders of electronic voting, the counting doesn't take as long as it once did.

So settle in, rustle up some snacks, and get ready to learn the fate of the ACT!

Welcome to election night here in Australia's capital, coming to you from Ngunnawal country, acknowledging others with a connection to the lands of the ACT. 

My name's Georgia Roberts and I will be taking you through this evening's events.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Ps. You have just under one hour to vote if it happened to have slipped your mind (and you've not seen the abundance of corflutes around the ACT)