Tasmania faces days, perhaps weeks, of political machinations after the election left the state facing a hung parliament.

The ABC’s election computer is predicting the Labor and Liberal parties will each win 10 seats, with the Greens taking five.

Liberal leader Will Hodgman has already indicated that he believes his party should be given the chance to form government.

In the lead-up to the poll, Premier David Bartlett ruled out entering into a power-sharing deal with the Greens.

Mr Bartlett said the party that won the most seats should be given the opportunity to govern.

Should two parties win the same number of seats, as seems likely, Mr Bartlett said the party with the greatest proportion of votes should be given that chance – even if it meant minority government.

On election night, Mr Hodgman told a packed tally room he expects to be given that chance.

Mr Hodgman said his party looked like capturing the highest percentage of the primary vote.

“[It is] the Liberal Party that has won the most votes right across Tasmania,” he said.

“Tasmanians have sent a very clear message tonight and it is one for change.

“It is one for a brighter, positive future. I will ensure that we will work constructively, positively and with their interests at our heart.”

Mr Bartlett was less forthcoming in his speech, instead thanking his supporters and talking up his government’s record.

He congratulated Mr Hodgman and Greens Leader Nick McKim and praised their campaigns.

He accepted responsibility for Labor’s performance.

“The electorate has sent Labor a message,” he said.

Greens

Mr McKim told the tally room a hung Parliament was an opportunity for a new era of cooperative politics in Tasmania.

He described it as a historic result for his party and the Greens’ best ever election achievement in any Australian state or territory.

“What an opportunity this is for Tasmania. What an opportunity for a new era of constructive, cooperative politics, for politicians to work together, not to advance their own interests or their party’s, but to advance Tasmania,” he said.

“The Tasmanian people have moved past that tired old view.”

He described the situation as a chance to disprove the notion that majority government was always good and minority government always bad.

He also borrowed and adapted the “true believers” phrase from the lexicon of former prime minister Paul Keating, saying: “This is a result for the new believers.”

Results

Labor went into the poll holding 14 seats, the Liberals seven and the Greens four.

Labor has lost four of its seats and has suffered a swing against it of about 12 per cent.

With more than 84 per cent of the vote counted, Labor had secured 37 per cent of the vote to the Liberal Party’s 39 per cent.

The Greens won 21 per cent of the vote – the party’s best result on record – eclipsing the 18 per cent it won in 2002.

Mr Hodgman topped the poll in Franklin and has the highest vote in the state.

Mr McKim also won a quota in Franklin while Mr Bartlett had the highest vote in his electorate of Denison.

The undecided seats are in Denison in the south and Braddon, in the north-west.

In Denison, it is a contest between the Greens’ Helen Burnett, Liberal Richard Lowrie and the Independent outsider Andrew Wilkie.

With 84 per cent of the primary vote counted, Mr Bartlett and Scott Bacon, Liberal Matthew Groom and the Greens’ Cassy O’Connor have all been elected.

The last seat in Braddon will be won by either the incumbent Liberal MP Brett Whiteley or the Greens’ Paul O’Halloran.

Labor’s Bryan Green and Brenton Best have been returned, along with the Liberal deputy leader Jeremy Rockliff and Adam Brooks.

Electoral system

Tasmania uses the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation in its lower house.

This system has only five electorates and five MPs are elected from each electorate to make up the 25-seat parliament.

This means candidates compete not only against those from other parties but also against colleagues from their own parties.

To be guaranteed a seat in parliament, candidates must win a “quota” – a great enough proportion of the vote to win a place.

If fewer than five candidates win a quota – which is invariably the case – the other positions in parliament are decided by the distribution of preferences.

As a result, it can take days or weeks for the final outcome to emerge.