Race an issue in Australian territory election

Australia's government is expected to gain more pre-election momentum with a ballot win on Saturday in the Northern Territory…

Australia's government is expected to gain more pre-election momentum with a ballot win on Saturday in the Northern Territory.

The election in the sprawling Northern Territory, where nearly a quarter of voters are Aborigines, is expected to return power to the conservative Country Liberal Party (CLP), an offshoot of Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal Party.

The CLP has held power since the territory, an area 20 times the size of Ireland, gained self-government in 1978, with opposition Labor Party struggling to overcome racially divided voting patterns that see the predominantly white CLP routinely triumph.

An expected victory by the CLP, which holds 17 of the territory's 25 seats, will give a small boost to the federal Liberals, who face a tough battle for re-election at a general election expected in November or December.

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Race has again reared its head as a key issue in the campaign, with five candidates for Ms Pauline Hanson's far-right One Nation party standing. A Labor poll found One Nation could win over 30 per cent of the vote in some seats.

Political analysts said although Saturday's election could not be seen as much of an indicator for the federal vote, since only 200,000 of Australia's 19 million people live in the remote region, the strength of the One Nation vote would be interesting.

One Nation won nearly 10 per cent of the vote in the 1998 general election but has since lost some strength. Nevertheless it still registers about 4 per cent support in opinion polls.