SA upper house seat winners decided

The winning 11 candidates in the upper house at the March South Australian election have been decided.

The Labor and Liberal parties have shared the spoils but Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST party has also won two seats with the declaration of the election result for South Australia's upper house.

The final preferences were distributed on Monday with the Electoral Commission of SA saying there was a 10-fold increase in the number of people who voted below the line in the March poll.

Eleven seats in the 22-seat Legislative Council were up for grabs with Labor and the Liberal parties taking four each, SA-BEST two through Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo, while Greens MP Tammy Franks was also returned.

That meant Dignity MP Kelly Vincent and Australian Conservatives MP Robert Brokenshire were unsuccessful.

Ms Bonaros said the two SA-BEST members intended to follow the policy platform the party took to the election and would still involve failed candidate and party leader Nick Xenophon in discussions.

But she suggested they may be open to negotiations on some issues.

"There's always going to be discussions about policies, but we went into the election with a very clear agenda," she said.

"I don't see us moving from those positions."

Successful Liberal candidate and new Health Minister Stephen Wade said the Liberal government hoped to engage every member of the upper house in a "respectful and collaborative manner".

"But I'd also like to remind you that we are the largest team in the council and in terms of mandate we have been elected to form a government," he said.

Lead Labor candidate Emily Bourke said the outgoing Labor government had left South Australia in better shape than when it took office 16 years ago.

She said the world had been watching SA's transition from traditional to advanced manufacturing and would continue to watch its progress.

The results declared from the 2018 poll give the Liberals nine upper house MPs to eight for Labor, with two held by SA-BEST, two by the Greens and one by Advance SA.


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Source: AAP


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