The ACT could provide Australia's first Greens minister after Labor and the Liberals said nothing was off the table in negotiations to form the next territory government.
A resolution is still some time away, though. The Greens are vowing to take their time up to two weeks deciding who they will support as the ACT's chief minister.
Negotiations between the parties will begin as early as tomorrow. However, they could be delayed by the fact the three new Greens MLAs are yet to identify a leader.
Labor and the Liberals are likely to have seven seats each in the next Assembly, although there is a chance the Greens could steal a second seat in Molonglo, at the expense of the Liberals.
Labor leader Jon Stanhope is maintaining that he has a clear mandate to remain chief minister. The latest count had Labor more than six percentage points clear of the Liberals last night, at 37.5 per cent to 31.3per cent in the territory-wide vote.
''The Labor Party has achieved a significant vote and I believe in the context of Hare-Clark ... there is a clear precedent and mandate to take government and govern for four more years,'' Mr Stanhope said yesterday.
Greens Molonglo MLA-elect Shane Rattenbury indicated the party did not necessarily share that view.
''That's obviously Jon's interpretation and he is entitled to it,'' he said.
''We have said right along that it is going to come down to the policy outcomes. We have got four years to deliver for Canberra.
''We want to sit down and have that conversation and say the Greens have put out a bunch of policies, both parties have put out a bunch of policies, what can we find to go forward?''
Greens Ginninderra MLA-elect Meredith Hunter said policy priorities included public transport, climate change, health, education and community consultation.
The last two are set to be combined in a review of the Stanhope Government's school closures.
Ms Hunter would not say whether the Greens were seeking a ministry, saying only, ''We will need to think very, very carefully around a whole range of things and what we are going to go in and talk about.
''We are not going to be rushed, we are not going to be pressured into making a decision early.''
Although Mr Stanhope has not ruled out agreeing to bring a Greens MLA into his cabinet, he does not think it fits with the Westminster system of government he holds dear.
''I think everything's on the table. But we haven't had a first conversation yet. It's not a model of government that strikes a chord in my heart,'' he said.
Liberals leader Zed Seselja whose party made Independent MLA Michael Moore health minister has also left open the possibility of a Greens minister.
Greens Brindabella MLA-elect Amanda Bresnan said the party's three new Members would all meet the major parties for negotiations that would begin in the next day or two. Those negotiations are likely to take a long time.
Mr Rattenbury said it would be a week before the count was finished and the final make-up of the Assembly was certain. The Greens then had another week before the Assembly sat to choose a chief minister.
Mr Stanhope remains the front runner, and said yesterday he would be surprised if a party that campaigned on community consultation ignored the community's views through the ballot box.
He did concede there was a ''level of dissatisfaction and disquiet'' with himself and his party, ''and we need to continue to work our way through that''.
Mr Seselja is not conceding defeat and denied Mr Stanhope had a mandate to remain in power.
''It's a pretty weak argument, I think. We'll have a situation where there's seven Liberals and seven Labor representatives in the Assembly and three Greens.
''That's not a mandate, that's a tight parliament.''.
He said he was looking forward to meeting the new cross bench and discussing his green credentials.
''I think it is important for the Greens to show that they can't be taken for granted by the Labor Party. We've heard from Jon Stanhope, we've heard from Katy Gallagher last night that they simply expect the Greens to fall into line,'' he said.