1990 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 27 October 1990, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party under Chief Minister Marshall Perron.
The CLP's political strategy for the campaign, devised by the Chief Minister's media secretary, Tony-Barker May, involved attacking the opposition ALP's policy platform, and using the costings as the basis of a 'where's the money coming from?' media assault. Although the Chief Minister was ill for much of the campaign, government ministers made challenging statements every day.
The CLP also used the services of conservative social researcher Mark Textor, subsequently co-head of Crosby Textor Group, who made accurate polling predictions during this election, outperforming internal ALP polling and independent public polling. The result came as a surprise to most except for CLP insiders.
Six months prior to the election, polling showed the CLP was headed for a big loss. However, the CLP government remained in power with an increase of over 9% to its primary vote, holding 14 of the 25 seats, with the ALP opposition gaining 3 seats for a total of 9 seats in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory Nationals contested the election again, but lost both of their seats of Barkly and Flynn, never to return. The 1990 election also saw the Greens emerge in territory politics, with 3.05% of the vote—fourth behind the CLP, Labor and the Nationals.
Independents Noel Padgham-Purich and Denis Collins were both re-elected.

Retiring MPs

Labor

Dan Leo MLA

Country Liberal

Tom Harris MLA

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Electorate	Held by	Labor	CLP	Nationals	Other

Arafura	Labor	Stan Tipiloura	Barry Puruntatameri		-
Araluen	CLP	Brian Doolan	Eric Poole	Enzo Floreani
Arnhem	Labor	Wes Lanhupuy	Tony Hayward-Ryan		Rod Ansell
Barkly	National	Maggie Hickey	Paul Ruger	Kenneth Purvis	Tony Boulter Charles Hallett
Braitling	CLP	Matthew Storey	Roger Vale	Damien Ward	Leslie Oldfield
Brennan	CLP	Ian Fraser	Max Ortmann		Col Firmin
Casuarina	CLP	Rod Ellis	Nick Dondas	Lea Rosenwax
Fannie Bay	CLP	Paul Costigan	Marshall Perron		Bob Ellis Strider
Goyder	CLP	Jack Ah Kit	Terry McCarthy	Ian Tuxworth	Kezia Purick Louise Size Thomas Starr
Greatorex	Independent	Harold Furber	Robert Kennedy	David Johannsen	Denis Collins
Jingili	CLP	Fiona Stuchbery	Rick Setter		Penelope Thomson
Karama	CLP	Margaret Gillespie	Mick Palmer	Janet Durling
Katherine	CLP	Phil Maynard	Mike Reed	Jim Forscutt	Laurie Hughes
Leanyer	CLP	Jim Davidson	Fred Finch	Alan MacKenzie
MacDonnell	Labor	Neil Bell	Brendan Heenan Alison Hunt
Millner	Labor	Terry Smith	Janice Collins
[Electoral division of Electoral division of Nelson (Northern Territory)\|Nelson (Northern Territory)\|Nelson]	Independent	Peter Ivinson	David Sanderson	Graeme Gow	Noel Padgham-Purich
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Syd Stirling	Susan McClure
Nightcliff	CLP	David Pettigrew	Stephen Hatton		John Dunham
Palmerston	CLP	Chris Draffin	Barry Coulter	Ronald Wright	Timothy Fowler
Port Darwin	CLP	Peter Cavanagh	Shane Stone	David Fuller	Jessie Kearney
Sanderson	CLP	Alan Perrin	Daryl Manzie		Graeme Parsons Andrew Wrenn
Stuart	Labor	Brian Ede	Eric Pananka Alexander Nelson
Victoria River	CLP	Gary Cartwright (politician)	Stephen Dunham
Wanguri	Labor	John Bailey	John Hare

Post-election pendulum

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in the Legislative Assembly according to the percentage point margin they are held by on a two-party-preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.