“We always knew it was going to be tough, obviously we would have hoped to have had a higher vote at this stage,” she said.

“Labor looks like they are pretty close to getting their two candidate in [but] I hope that a progressive voice is maintained in Launceston.

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“This is a city that deserves that voice, we want to speak for future generations, we want to speak for younger people today, we want this to be a place of hope and a place that people want to spend time in and stay.”

At 10.29pm Ms Dawkins had won 3990 first preference votes, with the Greens gaining a total of 9.15 per cent of the vote counted.

At time of writing 84.41 per cent of the Bass vote had been counted.

It will be a number of days before the final preferences, postal votes and early polling numbers are confirmed.

Ms Dawkins said she was proud of her efforts and was not giving up on Launceston.

She said there was “no way” the Greens party could have fought against the “millions of dollars of pro-pokies money flowing into Tasmania to support the only party who have a pro-pokies position”.

“When Labor adopted our position we thought this could happen and we were prepared for it,” Ms Dawkins said.

Ms Dawkins filled a casual vacancy to take her place in parliament in mid-2015, following the shock retirement of then-Greens leader Kim Booth.

She won 467 primary votes in 2014, compared to Mr Booth’s 6661.

In her maiden speech, the then-Launceston alderman and small businesswoman praised her predecessors and spoke of her commitment to the environment and the local food movement.

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