The CLP may capture the Palmerston seat of Brennan from Labor.
Coming into the election the seat was held with a 2.6 per cent margin by Labor backbencher Tony Sievers who had won it from CLP Minister Peter Chandler in the 2016 landslide election.
At midnight on Saturday the two party preferred voting with 64.2 per cent of the vote counted sat at 1,812 votes or 50.8 per cent for the CLP’s Marie-Clare Boothy and 1,753 votes or 49.2 per cent for Mr Sievers. The ABC’s Antony Green is predicting the seat will be won by Ms Boothby with a swing of 3.4 per cent.
On primary votes Mr Sievers was on 1,450 votes or 40.7 per cent, with Ms Boothby on 1,401 votes or 39.3 per cent, Territory Alliance candidate Abraham Mbemap on 382 votes or 10.7 per cent, followed in last place by the man who formerly held the seat, Mr Chandler with 332.
Chandler held Brennan with a margin of 14.0 per cent, but was defeated by a 16.6 per cent swing, by Mr Sievers becoming Brennan’s second Labor MLA.
In 2005 former Chief Minister and then current CLP leader Denis Burke led his party to a second defeat in a landslide that reduced the party to just four seats. A 20.8 per cent swing against him in his own seat saw the ALP’s James Burke, who was no relation, take it from him.
Brennan is in northeast Palmerston and is comprised of the suburbs of Farrar, Gunn, Bakewell and parts of Rosebery. It has a redistribution of 300 voters from Rosebery in Blain.
Ms Marie-Claire Boothby said while she was feeling confident on Saturday night after knocking on thousands of NT doors, the fear of another four years of a Labor Government was playing on her mind.
“The Territory has done it tough over the past four years and I’m actually quite fearful people will continue to leave,” she told the NT Independent at the CLP’s election event.
“A lot of people have told me they are ready to pack their bags and leave and we can’t afford that.”
As the counts mount up she says she’s feeling confident she’ll secure her seat of Brennan, where she said crime and jobs were the most important issues.
“I’ve basically have been campaigning for 12 months meetings as many people as possible,” she said.
“I’m feeling confident. I know the people I’ve met in the thousands and they’ve told me they want safe homes and jobs into the future and we’re the ones with a plan.”
“I know there is a lot of support for change in that seat. But we have to wait for the numbers to come through.”
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