elections to the australian capital territory legislative assembly were held on saturday, 18 october 2008. the incumbent labor party, led by jon stanhope, was challenged by the liberal party, led by zed seselja. candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a single transferable vote method, known as the hare-clark system. the result was another hung parliament with labor winning seven seats, the liberals six seats and the greens finishing with four seats, giving the greens the balance of power in the 17-member unicameral assembly. on 31 october 2008, after almost two weeks of deliberations, the greens chose to support a labor minority government. consequently, labor was re-elected to a third consecutive term of government in the act. stanhope was elected chief minister at the first sitting of the seventh assembly on 5 november 2008.