2020 Australian Capital Territory election

2020 Australian Capital Territory election
← 2016 17 October 2020 2024 →
All 25 seats of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
13 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout89.3% (Increase 1.0 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Andrew Barr Alistair Coe Shane Rattenbury
Party Labor Liberal Greens
Leader since 11 December 2014 25 October 2016 20 October 2012
Leader's seat Kurrajong Yerrabi Kurrajong
Last election 12 seats, 38.4% 11 seats, 36.7% 2 seats, 10.3%
Seats won 10 9 6
Seat change Decrease 2 Decrease 2 Increase 4
First preference vote 101,826 91,047 36,369
Percentage 37.8% 33.8% 13.5%
Swing Decrease 0.6 Decrease 2.9 Increase 3.2
Map of results by electorate at the 2020 ACT election
Chief Minister before election

Andrew Barr
Labor–Greens Coalition

Elected Chief Minister

Andrew Barr
Labor–Greens Coalition

The 2020 Australian Capital Territory election was held on 17 October 2020 to elect all 25 members of the unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly.

The incumbent Labor-Greens coalition government, led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, defeated the opposition Liberal Party.[1] On the night of the election Barr claimed victory and confirmed Labor would again seek to enter into an arrangement with the Greens to form government, whilst Liberal leader Alistair Coe conceded the election and acknowledged the party would retain opposition status in the Assembly.[1] The result meant that the Labor Party, which had been in office for 19 years at this election, won a sixth consecutive term of government in the Territory. Despite the victory, Labor's representation in the Assembly dropped to 10 seats, whilst the Liberals also suffered a decline in their vote and fell to 9 seats. The Greens retained the balance of power and picked up the seats lost by the two larger parties to claim 6 seats, its largest representation in the Assembly in the party's history.[2] Following the election, Labor and the Greens signed an agreement on 2 November to support a Labor-led Government with three ministers from the Greens.[3][4][5]

The election was conducted by the ACT Electoral Commission, using the proportional Hare-Clark system. At the preliminary close of rolls, there were 302,630 people enrolled to vote, representing a 6% increase on the 2016 election. Legislative changes in the Australian Capital Territory allowed for people to enrol during polling, with a further 3,370 electors enrolling before polling finished on 17 October.[6]

  1. ^ a b Evans, Jake (17 October 2020). "Labor to win re-election in ACT with support of Greens, ABC election analyst Antony Green says". ABC News.
  2. ^ "2020 ACT election results revealed: Labor loses last two seats to Liberals, Greens". The Canberra Times. 23 October 2020.
  3. ^ Barr, Andrew; Rattenbury, Shane; Berry, Yvette (November 2020). "Parliamentary and Governing Agreement for the 10th Legislative Assembly" (PDF). CMTEDD. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  4. ^ Bladen, Lucy (2 November 2020). "Labor and Greens reveal parliamentary and governing agreement". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  5. ^ "ACT Labor-Greens governing agreement prioritises public housing, action on climate change, transport". ABC News. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Near-complete enrolment: More than 300,000 Canberrans ready to 'vote safe, vote early'". ACT Electoral Commission. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.