David Pocock and Zed Seselja continue waiting for Senate results

About 87 per cent of the first-preference vote for the ACT Senate has been counted as of Wednesday night, leaving up to about 42,000 votes to go.

Labor, with newly minted Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, is currently on track to get a quota, and be the first across the line for one of the territory's two seats in the upper house.

While a winner for the ACT second Senate seat has not been announced, independent candidate Mr Pocock remains hopeful he will be Canberra's next representative.

Liberal senator Zed Seselja has not conceded, despite pollsters and analysts almost certain Mr Pocock will take his place.

Hesitant to officially celebrate, Mr Pocock said before election day he knew there was a possibility it could take weeks to find out the result, but admitted "knowing that and then experiencing it taking a while are different things".

"Experts are saying that it's mathematically pretty much impossible now for Senator Seselja to win but he hasn't conceded yet so we'll just wait for the official result," he said.

"I'm keen to wait and give him the opportunity to concede and wait for the final result."

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The Canberra Liberals have all but conceded Senator Seselja will lose his seat in what is being described as a "bitter blow" for the local branch on top of the Coalition's federal election drubbing.

"While counting of the ACT Senate vote continues at something of a glacial pace, it is clear that Zed's path to retaining the Senate seat is very narrow and Pocock remains the front runner to gain the seat on preferences," ACT party president John Cziesla said in an email to members seen by The Canberra Times.

Mr Seselja has avoided speaking with media and, at this stage, shows no sign of conceding.

He issued a brief statement through social media the day after the election. He said the results were disappointing for the Liberal Party across the nation. Commenting on his own chances, Senator Seselja said it was too early to determine a result.

"Much of the vote is yet to be counted, including significant numbers of pre-poll and postal ballots, which traditionally provide a boost to the Liberal count," he said.

"Whatever the result may be, I am proud of the campaign we ran in the ACT."

Legal expert from the Australian National University Ron Levy said the Liberal senator did not need to concede.

"I don't believe that conceding has any bearing on the outcome or not conceding for that matter; ultimately the AEC will decide," Dr Levy said.

As of Wednesday night, Mr Pocock had 21.12 per cent of the vote while Mr Seselja had 25.15 per cent, yet preferences are expected to flow in favour of the independent candidate.

The two are competing to get more than a third of the vote - or about 33.4 per cent.

Given this time two people won't achieve a quota in their own right through first preferences, it will come down to voters' subsequent preferences as other candidates are knocked out.

As those candidates are knocked out, their supporters' second, third or even fourth, fifth or sixth preferences are counted to ensure the voter has a say in the outcome.

Given Labor has almost exactly a quota, there will be few if any surplus votes to redistribute. Then, the Australian Electoral Commission will look at the candidate with the fewest votes, and where their supporters put their second preferences - effectively reallocating their votes. That process continues until two candidates have reached a quota.

Independent Kim Rubenstein, who had recommended her supporters give Mr Pocock their second preference, has 4.36 per cent of the vote so far.

The Greens, who have campaigned to unseat Senator Seselja, have just over 10 per cent.

If the majority of those votes flow to Mr Pocock, as many expect, it would likely be enough to get him elected, even if the more right-leaning preferences flowed to Senator Seselja. The United Australia Party is polling at 2.13 per cent.

The Australian Electoral Commission's director of media Evan Ekin-Smyth said the short story is it "could be a while" until an official result comes for the two candidates as postal votes continue coming until Friday.

"We will continue to count first preferences as postal votes come into the AEC ... this additional first preference data may be enough for there to be sufficient clarity, but perhaps not," he said.

"After all first preferences are captured we won't have any new count data until we have captured every single preference on every single ACT Senate ballot paper - this could take another couple of weeks, and we have until June 28 to return the writ."

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