The election was conducted by the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, an independent body answerable to Parliament.

The one-term incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) minority government, led by Chief Minister Adam Giles, was defeated by the Opposition Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Michael Gunner, in a landslide.

[8] Independents: Robyn Lambley (Araluen), Terry Mills (Blain), Kezia Purick (Goyder), Gerry Wood (Nelson), Yingiya Mark Guyula (Nhulunbuy)

Labor went into the election as unbackable favourites, with Northern Territory opinion polls indicating a massive swing against the CLP—as much as 19 points, by at least one account (see below).

Giles later admitted that he'd known almost as soon as the writs were dropped that the CLP would not be reelected, but felt he had to keep up appearances to maintain morale.

By only four percentage points, Labor won the third-largest majority government in Territory history, with 72 percent of the 25-seat Assembly.

Also of note, former Deputy Chief Minister Willem Westra van Holthe lost his seat of Katherine to Labor.

Going into the election, Westra van Holthe sat on a majority of 22.3 percent, making Katherine the safest seat in the Territory.

An opinion poll conducted by ReachTEL and commissioned by The Australian which surveyed 1036 residents via robocall on the afternoon of Sunday 1 March 2015, a month after the 2015 CLP leadership spill, across all 18 electorates in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs indicated a 17.6-point two-party swing against the incumbent CLP government since the last election.

[18][19][20] The Northern Territory News commissioned its own MediaReach poll in late July 2016, more than a week before the writ was formally dropped.

The same poll also showed that Labor leader Michael Gunner had a substantial lead over Giles as preferred chief minister.

Solomon, which is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston area, saw CLP incumbent Natasha Griggs rolled by Labor challenger Luke Gosling on a swing of more than seven points.

Warren Snowdon, the Labor member for Lingiari, which covers the rest of the Territory, picked up a healthy swing of seven points.

[28] The Terry Mills-led CLP opposition defeated the Paul Henderson-led Labor government at the 2012 election, winning 16 of 25 seats.

[33] Giles raised the possibility of an early election on 20 July stating that he would "love" to call a snap poll, but that it was "pretty much impossible to do".

Major changes included in the proposal were:[36][37] A period of thirty days in which interested parties and individuals could lodge objections ended on 16 July 2015.

The changes that occurred were less severe than those proposed in June:[38] Following the completion of the final report, it was tabled in the assembly on 16 September 2015.

Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.