The public's knowledge of who Australia's next prime minister would be came relatively early when former prime minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat at approximately 10.30pm on Saturday night.

However almost two days later, Canberrans are still twiddling their thumbs waiting to find out who their second senator will be in the Federal Parliament.

Media director of the Australian Electoral Commission, Evan Ekin-Smyth, said it "might be a little bit longer" for Senate results compared to House of Representatives candidates, particularly due to how close the counting is between Mr Pocock and Senator Seselja.

"In the ACT Senate for a long time, for a number of elections, it's been a really clear two horse race, there's always been one going to Labor and one going to Liberal ... so the ACT is not used to waiting for a senate result," he said.

Voting begins for the Senate through counting first preference votes first - if a candidate reaches a quota number of first preference votes, it can be likely confirmed they have a spot.

In the ACT Senate's case, a candidate needs a third of the vote to reach quota and be elected. In the count as of Monday afternoon (when about 170,000 of the 314,000 first preferences were counted), 45,591 votes were needed to gain a seat. Labor senator Katy Gallagher is close to achieving that with 45,432. However, as more votes come in, that quota will increase. While Senator Gallagher does not have the exact amount of votes, analysts have called her win.

Meanwhile, Senator Seselja has won only 32,363 votes and Mr Pocock 29,945 as of Monday afternoon.

Mr Ekin-Smith noted because it remains tight on first preferences, it could depend "on what the postal votes are saying".

Postal votes always come in a bit later because they have been sent by Australians all over the country and the world. Mr Ekin-Smith said again if postal votes remain close on first preferences, there "may have to [be a] wait" for the distribution of preferences.

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While the AEC process can be drawn out to get exact numbers, political analysts such as the ABC's Antony Green often will call winners beforehand, as mathematically it become clear who the winner is before all votes are counted.

In fact, the AEC has not officially called any lower or upper house seat since the election.

Politics expert from the Australian National University, emeritus professor John Warhurst, predicted it will be "into next week" when Canberrans find out who becomes the second senator.

The lengthy wait is also attributed to the Senate having "three times as many voters" compared to the three House of Representative seats, as it is for the combined ACT.

"Even once we know the primary votes, if it's very close, the preferences among so many candidates could also cause some surprises, or at least you'd want to be sure," Dr Warhurst said.

Of all the ACT Senate candidates, the ones to get knocked out of the race early will have second, third or even fourth preferences counted to ensure the voter has a say in the system.

"They will have a series of counts, which will eliminate candidates one by one," Dr Warhurst said.

So in the case for Mr Pocock and Senator Seselja, it could mean waiting until preferences are counted from other candidates that fall out of the race.

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