Northern Territory Greens candidates will be elected to Darwin City and Alice Springs Town Councils after elections over the weekend, the Australian Greens said today.
With counting of postal and absentee ballots to start tomorrow, on current results, the NT Greens expect that two Greens will be elected to Darwin City Council, and one to Alice Springs Town Council, all from strong primary votes.
"With a Greens candidate coming first in a Darwin City Council ward, on 28% of the vote, and other candidates polling well above 10%, the Northern Territory is clearly seeing the Greens as a great alternative," Australian Greens Acting Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.
In Darwin City Council's Chan Ward, sitting Greens alderman Robin Knox, elected at a 2010 by-election, has been resoundingly re-elected, coming first in a crowded field of 7 candidates with 28.2% of the primary vote. This guarantees her election in what is now one of the Greenest local government wards in the country.
In Lyons Ward, Greens candidate and NT Greens Convenor, Simon Niblock, has come third with a strong 14.9% primary vote, and has a good chance of being elected on strong preference flows from candidates across the political spectrum.
In Richardson Ward, despite polling a strong 10.4% of the primary vote, Michael Duffy is not expected to win election.
In Alice Springs Town Council, NT Greens candidate Jade Kudrenko is running a close fourth out of 15 candidates, on 10.5% of the vote. This high primary vote nearly guarantees her election after the distribution of preferences. Second NT Greens candidate Matt Campbell has an outside chance of being elected from his 3.5% primary vote.
"On behalf of the Australian Greens, I congratulate all candidates and look forward to hearing a stronger Greens voice in the Northern Territory, speaking out for investing in a cleaner, safer, fairer future, rather than digging ourselves into the past."
Results are available here from the NT Electoral Commission at http://notes.nt.gov.au/nteo/Electorl.nsf?OpenDatabase
