A.C.T. Election October 18

[Platypus]

OK, so on Saturday the Australian Capital Territory will be going to the polls.

The ACT Legislative Assembly is comprised of 17 members from three electorates. Belconnen and Hall form the Ginninderra elecorate, electing 5 members; Molonglo elects 7 members and comprises most of Woden Valley, Jerrabomberra, Canberra Inner South, Canberra Inner North, Weston Creek and most of Gungahlin. 5 members are elected from the Tuggeranong-centric Brindabella electorate, which also includes most of Rural ACT, Tharwa and parts of Woden Valley.

Brindabella is currently 3 ALP 2 Canberra Liberal; it will be 2/2 with the third either ALP or Greens.

Ginninderra is 3 ALP 2 Canberra Liberal also, and like Brindabella, both will win 2 seats with the third to be fought out most likely between the ALP and the Greens.

Molonglo currently has 3 ALP, 2 Canberra Liberal, 1 Green and 1 'Canberra Party' (Richard Mulcahy, an independent ex-Liberal). Labor and the Libs will each win 2, the Greens will win 1, and the next two seats will be fought between Mulcahy, Frank Piagallo (another independent, ex mayor of Queanbeyan), a 3rd Liberal or Labor and a 2nd Green.

My prediction:

ALP minority government

Ginninderra:
ALP 2
C. Liberal 2
Green 1

Brindabella:
ALP 3
C. Liberal 2

Molonglo:
ALP 3
C. Liberal 2
Green 1
Canberra 1

TOTALS:
ALP 8
C. Liberals 6
Green 2
Canberra 1

Mulcahy naturally leans to the Liberals, and the Greens to Labor in this situation; but Mulcahy could work with ALP if needed.

[Platypus]

Looking like 7/7/3. Mick Gentleman got turfed out in Brindabella for a newcomer ALP candidate, Joy Burch...don't you just love Hare-Clark? She should be much better than he ever was anyway.

[Platypus]

Canberra is basically a series of towns-Belconnen, Gungahlin, Weston Creek, Woden Valley and Tuggeranong- that sort of float around North Canberra and South Canberra, the two main parts.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Canberra_Map-MJC.png[/imng]

Canberra is a suburban city, with basically no real urban center.

It's horrible, but hey.

As for aussie cities; they're usually quite different from US cities because we don't really 'do' ghettos here. The inner city of most cities votes Greens or Labor usually, in part because of poorer residents in some areas, but crucially also because of latte leftists or whatever. The suburbs go both ways depending on location.

Canberra Liberals are also different from their federal counterparts. Think Connecticut Republican.