On Saturday night with 75 per cent of the vote in Braddon counted, Mr Jaensch was 1418 votes behind Adam Brooks.

The voters seemed unphased by Mr Brooks' chequered past, having resigned after misleading former premier Will Hodgman, and facing two major hiccups during the campaign.

Early on it was revealed Mr Brooks may be charged on summons for firearms offences, which he said he would fight.

And in the final two days, he was swamped by allegations he had created a false identity and fake IDs for use on online dating sites.

Mr Brooks denied the claims, and Premier Peter Gutwein stood by him despite calls from opposition parties for him to be dumped.

Liberal deputy leader Jeremy Rockliff, who topped the poll, said he was very grateful for the electorate's support in his sixth election. He said predicting the fall of the preferences for the third Liberal seat was very difficult.

The surprise package for the government was the strong showing of relative newcomer Felix Ellis, who ran second all night to Mr Rockliff.

Mr Ellis was elected on a recount when Joan Rylah resigned in 2020, with Mrs Rylah returning to Parliament when Mr Brooks resigned after she was ousted at the 2018 election.

Mr Ellis said he was pleased and proud of the support he had received in the campaign.

"It's been amazing to be able to represent the North-West, West Coast and King Island over the last eight months and really hopeful we can do that again for another four years," Mr Ellis said.

"It's been an interesting campaign, I've done a bit of it from a hospital bed, we've got a brand new baby, I haven't got a lot of sleep but it's been amazing the support we have received."

Labor Braddon MHA Shane Broad, who was set to be returned along with fellow Labor member Anita Dow, said the party had a lot of work to do over the next four years, with the status quo maintained across most electorates.

"The start of the election was very messy and it is obvious Premier Peter Gutwein thought he would take advantage of the COVID shine. It could have been a hell of a lot worse than it has been," Mr Broad said.

Independent Craig Garland made a significant improvement on his 2018 vote, with 3536 votes at the close of counting on Saturday night, after getting 1967 last election.

The loss of Mr Jaensch could cause a considerable issue for Mr Gutwein, as he would most likely be faced with the choice for a ministry between the inexperienced Mr Ellis and Mr Brooks under a cloud from the latest allegations.