The Liberal Party was within grasp of its first majority government in Tasmania for 18 years on Saturday - as Labor admitted it faced a hard task of keeping voter interest.
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The Liberals were last in power for two years in minority backed by the Greens from 1996 to 1998, and this time party leader Will Hodgman warned against a repetition of any power-sharing arrangement.
"The thought of another Labor-Green government with a tinge of Palmer United thrown in is a frightening prospect as far as I'm concerned," Mr Hodgman said after he voted in central Hobart.
However the 44-year-old former lawyer, son of the late Liberal veteran Michael Hodgman, is favoured to take the party to power in its own right, with opinion polls indicating a majority of one to three seats in the 25 seat House of Assembly.
EMRS, ReachTEL and Newspoll surveys all pointed to the majority, with Labor falling back to six or seven seats in the 25 seat House of Assembly, the Greens likely to keep four seats, and the PUP an outside chance at a single seat.
The change would end four successive terms of Labor-led government, a stretch that premier Lara Giddings said had left her with mixed emotions.
"It's difficult when you've been in power for 16 years to capture the imagination, and you must work off your record," Ms Giddings said.
Ms Giddings denied she felt an air of inevitability about defeat.
"No, there's a saying I probably shouldn't say considering I'm a lady on the bigger side, but it's not over until she sings."
Mr Hodgman said although it had been by and large a clean campaign, it was disappointing that there had been potential breaches of advertising laws.
"We haven't done robo-calls, but a lot of people have been surprised or concerned that we have, because the Labor party have used my voice in their robo-calls," he said. "I think that's a bit unfortunate."
Mr Hodgman made his first priority in government taking on the state's difficult forestry debate, following the Liberals' promise to kill off a peace deal reached between environmentalists and industry.
But in a last minute intervention, the big newsprint maker Norske Skog's general manager Rod Bender said he would not agree with any plan to rip up an agreement that had taken so long, and so much hard work.
"I'd hate to see that torn up now," Mr Bender told the ABC. "I think we should continue to work in a collaborative way..."