1997 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday August 30, 1997, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party.
Shane Stone continued as Chief Minister.
During the previous term, the CLP had lost the seat of Fannie Bay to Labor in a by-election. The CLP did not win the seat back, but managed to take MacDonnell from Labor and Nelson after Independent Noel Padgham-Purich retired.

Retiring MPs

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

Electorate	Held by	Labor	CLP	Other

Arafura	Labor	Maurice Rioli	Jacob Nayinggul
Araluen	CLP	Lilliah McCulloch	Eric Poole
Arnhem	Labor	Jack Ah Kit	Alan Wright	Lance Lawrence Thomas Maywundjiwuy
Barkly	Labor	Maggie Hickey	Mark John	Barry Nattrass
Blain	CLP	Richard Bawden	Barry Coulter
Braitling	CLP	Peter Brooke	Loraine Braham
Brennan	CLP	Stephen Bennett	Denis Burke
Casuarina	CLP	Douglas McLeod	Peter Adamson
Drysdale	CLP	Paul Nieuwenhoven	Stephen Dunham	Stuart Edwards
Fannie Bay	Labor	Clare Martin	Michael Kilgariff
Goyder	CLP	Wayne Connop	Terry McCarthy	Strider
Greatorex	CLP	Peter Kavanagh	Richard Lim
Jingili	CLP	Catherine Phillips	Steve Balch	Stephen Barnes Ross Forday
Karama	CLP	John Tobin	Mick Palmer
Katherine	CLP	Michael Peirce	Mike Reed	Peter Byers
MacDonnell	Labor	Mark Wheeler	John Elferink	Kenneth Lechleitner
Millner	CLP	Peter O'Hagan	Phil Mitchell	Ian Mills June Mills
Nelson	Independent	Theresa Francis	Chris Lugg	Dave Tollner
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Syd Stirling	Richard Davey
Nightcliff	CLP	Paul Henderson	Stephen Hatton	Theo Katapodis Betty McCleary
Port Darwin	CLP	Geoffrey Carter	Shane Stone	Lex Martin
Sanderson	CLP	Michael Atkinson	Daryl Manzie
Stuart	Labor	Peter Toyne	John Bohning
Victoria River	CLP	Paul La Fontaine	Tim Baldwin
Wanguri	Labor	John Bailey	Peter Styles

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.