{"id":638527,"date":"2026-03-07T11:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/638527\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T11:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:16:17","slug":"nightcliff-by-election-polls-close-and-vote-counting-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/638527\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightcliff by-election polls close and vote counting begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vote counting has started in Nightcliff, with the Greens trying to hold on to the marginal seat it won from Labor by just 36 votes in the 2024 Northern Territory election.<\/p>\n

The by-election was triggered last month by the resignation of Greens politician Kat McNamara for health reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms McNamara became the first Green to win a seat in the NT Parliament when she claimed Nightcliff by just 36 votes in the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

Four candidates are vying to replace her, including Suki Dorras-Walker from the Greens, independent Phil Scott, Labor’s Ed Smelt and Anjan Paudel from the CLP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

See the latest results on the ABC Election page.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ed Smelt, Suki Dorras-Walker and Phil Scott take part in a debate hosted by ABC Radio Darwin. (ABC News: Aidan Daly)<\/p>\n

After weeks of doorknocking, all candidates said community safety was one of the major issues in the electorate, along with the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nightcliff is traditionally a Labor seat, with the party holding it for 23 years before Ms McNamara won it from former Labor chief minister Natasha Fyles in 2024<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kat McNamara, pictured here celebrating the win on election night in 2024. (ABC News: Andie Smith)<\/p>\n

Candidates are expecting the results to be close \u2014 in 2024 Ms McNamara narrowly snatched the seat after benefiting from a large number of CLP voters who preferenced the Greens over the Labor Party.<\/p>\n

There were 907 votes cast on Saturday, 2,657 people cast early votes, and 441 postal votes were issued, of which about 160 are being counted tonight.<\/p>\n

That would put voter turnout at under 67 per cent, given some postal votes will not be returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In comparison, voter turnout in the 2024 NT election was 76.6 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Candidates have been campaigning at the Nightcliff markets ahead of the by-election. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

The NT Electoral Commission released its updated donations disclosure records on Friday, revealing more than $100,000 worth of gifts and donations to the four candidates vying for the seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three former Labor chief ministers, Clare Martin, Paul Henderson and Michael Gunner, donated to Labor candidate Ed Smelt, while businesses Paspaley Pearling Co and KPMG donated to the Country Liberal Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All up, the Greens collected the most funding, with more than $43,000, compared with $31,000 for Labor, $23,000 for the CLP and more than $12,000 for independent Phil Scott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vote counting has started in Nightcliff, with the Greens trying to hold on to the marginal seat it…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":638528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[271931,4740,193993,72078,271930,22389,3957,271927,606,271929,50,206934,13263,271926,271925,24428,9641,271928,13235],"class_list":["post-638527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-anjan-paudel","tag-australia","tag-by-election","tag-clp","tag-ed-smelt","tag-greens","tag-independent","tag-kat-mcnamara","tag-labor","tag-natasha-fyles","tag-news","tag-nightcliff","tag-nt","tag-nt-election","tag-nt-politics","tag-phil-scott","tag-polls","tag-suki-dorras-walker","tag-vote"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116187614022810724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}