The ACT Greens are on track to cling onto four seats, overcoming initial expectations that a small swing against the party had cost them half their seats.
The party's leader, Shane Rattenbury, on Thursday was forced to defend the Greens against claims they only wanted to be the party of good news.
The Greens are continuing to ponder their future in the next Legislative Assembly but their position is looking much stronger with Laura Nuttall now firming as the favourite to take the fifth seat in Brindabella.
Ms Nuttall had been largely ruled out of the race on election night with the seat being called in favour of the Liberals but the preference flows are swinging towards the Greens candidate. ABC elections analyst Antony Green has now placed her as the favourite.
Mr Green wrote on his blog that following distribution of preferences on Wednesday night, Ms Nuttall was in front of Liberal candidate James Daniels by 37 votes. Labor's Mick Gentleman is falling further behind.
"Given the Liberal vote has further to fall, Nuttall must now be listed as favourite to win the final seat in Brindabella," Mr Green said.
Mr Rattenbury said the election of Ms Nuttall would strengthen the party.
"That'll strengthen our numbers and having a team of four will be great if we're able to secure that," he said.
The Greens suffered a swing of 1 per cent against them at last Saturday's election. Rebecca Vassarotti and Emma Davidson were both defeated. Jo Clay and Andrew Braddock, along with Mr Rattenbury, were re-elected.
The Greens are consulting with their membership about whether they will rejoin the government in cabinet or sit on the crossbench.
Mr Rattenbury defended the party after Chief Minister Andrew Barr said Greens members could not expect to be a "minister for good news".
Mr Barr made the comments after Mr Rattenbury said the negative consequences of government had landed with the party.
The Greens leader said his comments had been misunderstood. Mr Rattenbury said he was speaking about how it was difficult for the party to communicate what they had achieved in government.
"We've taken on challenging pieces of work. We expect to do that, we understand that ... part of being in the ministry is that you will undoubtedly get difficult issues," he said.
"The observation I was making in the macro sense is the Greens do struggle to communicate the progress we've made in government whilst at the same time there's always a level of difficulty that's involved in being in government."
Mr Barr said on Wednesday ministers had to be prepared to deal with things that weren't under their control.
"In the ACT government you just don't get to be the minister for good news in the areas you are interested in. You also have to have a role as a minister in cabinet and you have to deal with all of the issues that emerge," he said.
Mr Rattenbury said the party had taken on difficult portfolios.
"There's no doubt the Greens have and can take difficult portfolios ... I think the Greens have demonstrated a capability to step up and take on those difficult jobs," he said.
Mr Rattenbury said there had always been a robust relationship between the Greens and Labor and this bubbled to the surface during an election campaign.
"There's always some disagreements going in the background, different views on things, frank conversations," he said.
"It's necessary in an effective relationship to actually be able to talk about those things. I think during an election period you do see more of it come to the surface and that's what we're seeing at the moment."
