Mercury (Hobart)

State poll count edges to climax

- DAVID KILLICK david.killick@news.com.au

COUNTING in the state election is about to enter its final phase — with final results expected by the weekend.

Tasmanian Electoral Commission­er Andrew Hawkey said the cut-off for postal votes to be received was 10am on Tuesday and once the number of valid votes was known, the final quotas for each seat would be calculated.

Counting is a painstakin­g process, carried out manually.

The work of distributi­ng surplus votes from candidates who had achieved more than a quota, then the eliminatio­n of the lowest-ranked candidates and the distributi­on of preference­s would begin soon afterwards, Mr Hawkey said.

“I think from a timing point of view, we won’t finish Clark until late Wednesday or Thursday morning,” he said.

“I think most of the others will probably be Thursday afternoon or evening and Bass will most likely be Friday.”

Premier Peter Gutwein has vowed he would step down if the Liberals do not win a majority

Liberal Michael Ferguson said it wouldn’t come to that.

“There will be no need for that because we’re very confident of achieving our required 13,” he said on Monday.

The party looks likely to return with 13 seats, to Labor’s nine, two Greens and one independen­t.

On the latest available figures, the Liberals look set to return three members in each of Bass, Braddon and Lyons, with Labor holding the other two seats in each electorate.

Franklin looks like returning two Liberals, two Labor and a single Greens member.

In Clark, the Liberals are set to return two members: with uncertaint­y about whether the second member will be Simon Behrakis or Madeleine Ogilvie.

Labor and the Greens are expected to have one member each, with independen­t Kristie Johnston tipped to enter parliament.

There were 394,432 people eligible to vote in the 2021 state election, with 105 candidates vying for the 25 seats in the House of Assembly.

The distributi­on of preference­s in the Legislativ­e Council division of Windermere will also take place today. Liberal Nick Duigan is leading Labor’s Geoff Lyons in that race by 7825 votes to 5561.

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