Labor has won the South Australian election after recording a strong swing against Premier Steven Marshall’s Liberal government. 

It is the first loss for an incumbent government at any state or territory election during the pandemic. Labor leader Peter Malinauskas will be the state’s new premier.

Mr Marshall conceded on Saturday night, three hours after vote counting started.  

“It has been an honour and privilege to serve the people of South Australia,” he told supporters.

“I think it’s great to live in a country where we have free and open elections.”

Labor will pick up a string of seats, enough to govern in its own right.

The Electoral Commission had Labor’s primary vote on 39.8 per cent and the Liberals on 35.7 per cent with about 30 per cent of the vote counted.

That put Labor ahead in 27 seats, the Liberals in 15, and independents in six.

Labor needed 24 in the House of Assembly to claim a majority.

Mr Marshall was also in danger of losing his own eastern suburbs seat of Dunstan.

Across a number of seats, Labor appeared to be attracting voters who supported Nick Xenophon’s SA-Best party at the last election.

It looked set to win the key marginal contests of King, Newland, Adelaide and Elder; the four seats considered most likely to fall if the opposition was to win.

Labor was also challenging sitting Liberal candidates in a range of seats previously considered safe for the government.

Key independents Dan Cregan in the Adelaide Hills, Geoff Brock, who shifted to the seat of Stuart in the mid-north, and Troy Bell in Mt Gambier were also on track to be re-elected.

Should Mr Brock prevail, Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan would also exit the parliament.

AAP

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