It is not clear if the vanquished CLP will keep its party status after the election and receive the extra resources that comes with it, the independent Member for Goyder, Kezia Purick, says.

When counting finished on Saturday night, the numbers indicated independents could outnumber members of the Country Liberals party in the new parliament.

The ABC's election calculator is predicting independents could win four seats, while the CLP could win three.

Ms Purick, who remains as Speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly until the first sitting of the new parliament, said salaries for positions such as opposition leader and the resources that go with an opposition party could be up for grabs.

"It's going to be very interesting because as well as sitting on the crossbenches, there's entitlements that flow to opposition leader, deputy leader, the whip — they get salary of office, they get allocation of resources, they get allocation of offices from the Government so that is all yet to be determined," she said.

She said that prior to the election she had sought advice on a range of scenarios including the question of what defines an opposition party in the event a large number of independents or minor party members won seats.

"The question has to be asked, who really is the greater opposing force holding the Government to account, I don't know," she said.

Ms Purick said at the federal level, parties had to have a minimum of five members to gain party status but she said the NT did not have "hard and fast rules".

"We don't have that in our parliamentary system," she said.

Another re-elected independent in Darwin's rural area, Gerry Wood, said he would consider working as part of a bloc of independents to hold Labor to account, but he needed to see the final makeup of the Parliament.

"I think we're open for discussion, you could say that," he said.

Charles Darwin University law lecturer and former Labor MLA Ken Parish said when the CLP won four out of 25 seats in 2005, the then Labor government agreed to give the Country Liberals opposition status.

Ms Purick said Labor would need to give due attention to the new crossbenchers if it was going to govern effectively.

"The fact that there's going to be a diminished opposition from a party perspective, it's going to be a different parliament," Ms Purick said.

"The challenge will also be with Labor, if they're going to be seen as governing well for the Northern Territory, they're going to have to be seen as working and briefing the crossbenches such that they can understand the changes they're trying to bring in."

The Chief Minister-designate, Michael Gunner, said with several seats still up for grabs, it was too early to make commitments about how resources would be split between the CLP and independents.

"Territorians need an opposition ... independents have been elected by Territorians and we'll respect them too, we'll make sure we have a resourced opposition and independents in the Northern Territory," he said.