nominate candidates to be listed on ballot papers as independents. Retiring members Labor John Hargreaves (Brindabella) Brindabella Five seats were up for election. The Labor Party was defending two seats. The Liberal Party was defending two seats. The Greens were defending one seat. Ginninderra Five seats were up for election. The Labor Party was defending two seats. The Liberal Party was defending two seats. The Greens were defending one seat. Molonglo Seven seats were up for election. The Labor Party was defending three seats. The Liberal Party was defending two seats. The Greens were defending two seats. Elected in this election were 3 Labour (Barr, Corbell, Gallagher), 2 Liberals (Doszpot, Hanson), and two Greens (Le Coutour, Rattenbury) Unregistered parties and groups Pirate Party Australia endorsed Mark Gibbons in Brindabella, Glen Takkenberg in Ginninderra, and Stuart Biggs in Molonglo. Opinion polling On 18 October 2012, 1,200 voters (400 voters per seat, 5% MoE) were polled by Patterson Research Group and published in The Canberra Times. Labor was on 44.5 percent (+7.1 points), the Liberals were on 35.5 percent (+3.9 points), the Greens were on 14.5 (−1.0 point) while others were on 5.5 percent (−9.9 points). This would have produced a result somewhere from minority government to majority government for the incumbent Labor government. It was the only poll conducted during the election campaign. Results Territory-wide vote |} Primary vote by electorate Final distribution of seats Formation of Government After the distribution of preferences neither of the two major parties had won sufficient number of seats to form government in their own right and would need the support of the sole Greens representative Shane Rattenbury. While Labor leader Katy Gallagher wanted to renew the cooperation with the Greens from the previous election period, Liberal leader Zed Seselja argued that in the light of the overall losses of the previous Labor-Green alliance, the strong Liberal gain of 7.3%, and a historic tie in both seats and percentage (38.9% for each major party), with his party having received 41 more preference votes than Labor, the Liberals as the formally strongest party should lead the new Government. After a week of negotiations with both major parties, Shane Rattenburry came to a formal agreement with the Labor Party to form a Coalition Government, which meant that he would be appointed to the cabinet, and implement nearly 100 policies and reforms mainly regarding the rail network in