Election results 2019: Liberals and Labor suffer swings against them in Canberra seats

While the ACT returned a sea of red on Saturday as all three lower house seats went comfortably to the Labor Party, a closer look at how residents voted locally reveals a city divided.

An analysis of preliminary two-party preferred voting data at each polling station shows Labor consolidating its power in the north and centre, while Tuggeranong recorded the strongest swing in the territory to the Liberal party.

Gordon North recorded a 12 per cent swing to Liberal Ed Cocks, after preferences. The Liberals also increased their support in the surrounding suburbs of Isabella Plains, Richardson and Conder.

Greens and independents had pockets of support, especially in the Greens traditionally strong heartland of the inner north, but after preferences Labor increased its already safe hold on most of the inner areas around Lyneham, Braddon and Turner.

Weston Creek also defied the national trend, tipping more support towards Labor. Successful candidate and former senator David Smith recorded swings of 5-6 per cent.

Further out the Liberals recorded scattered extra support with minor swings in parts of west and north Belconnen.

Overall, Labor incumbent member for Fenner Andrew Leigh's vote was virtually unchanged from the last election, returning him on a commanding 61 per cent two-party vote. It was a similar story in Bean, where David Smith took the newest seat with a healthy 57.8 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. New entrant to the House of Representatives Alicia Payne increased Labor's two-party vote by more than 4 percentae points in the central electorate of Canberra, taking 67.4 per cent of the vote.

Despite the strong results for Labor, both major parties recorded a drop in primary vote, as Canberrans looked to Greens and independents. The Liberals had a 3.4 per cent swing away from them, while Labor also suffered a 2.7 per cent swing, although neither had a meaningful impact on the final result.

Clive Palmer's United Australia Party collected more than 6000 first preference votes on Saturday across the three ACT electorates.

Emeritus Professor of political science at the Australian National University John Warhurst said on a preliminary examination it did appear Canberra was following a similar national trend where city areas had swung towards Labor while the Liberals had found increasing support in suburban and outer areas.

"The swings are all over the place ... but I think a lot of youngish couples, professionals with higher incomes in white collar employment are moving into the centre," Professor Warhurst said.

"Closer in people I think feel closer integrated into the political scene, while the further out you go services become more important, roads and transport become more important.

"If you're in Tuggeranong you're more likely to feel you're missing out while if you're in the seat of Canberra you're probably closer to employment, not travelling as far and therefore more likely to support environmental and Green causes."

Professor Warhurst said despite the swings, Saturday's results showed all three lower house seats remained firmly in Labor's grip.