Northern Territory general election, 1977

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13 August 1977 (1977-08-13)

1980 →

All 19 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	Goff Letts
Party	Country Liberal	Labor
Leader since	19 October 1974
Leader's seat	Victoria River (lost seat)
Last election	17 seats	0 seats
Seats won	12 seats	6 seats
Seat change	5	6
Percentage	40.1%	38.2%
Swing	8.9	7.7

Majority Leader before election

Goff Letts
Country Liberal

Elected Majority Leader

Paul Everingham
Country Liberal

Goff Letts
Country Liberal

Paul Everingham
Country Liberal

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 13 August 1977. Though the election was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP), the party lost five of its seven executive members. Surprisingly, one of the casualties was Majority Leader Goff Letts—one of the few instances where a major-party leader at any level in Australia lost his own seat. The election also marked the emergence of the Australian Labor Party as a parliamentary force: Labor took six seats in the new assembly.

The Progress Party contested the elections, winning 9.76% of the primary vote across the territory, but failed to secure any assembly seats.

The Country Liberals chose Paul Everingham to succeed Letts as Majority Leader. Everingham appointed a new Executive, which included future Chief Ministers Marshall Perron and Ian Tuxworth. The following year, the Territory attained self-government. Everingham became Chief Minister, while his Executive became a Ministry with greatly expanded powers.

Independent Dawn Lawrie retained her seat of Nightcliff at this election, while Ron Withnall lost his seat of Port Darwin to the CLP.

Northern Territory general election, 13 August 1977
Legislative Assembly
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