Tasmanian Liberals are confident they will be able to form a historic, third-term majority government based on counting in the Hobart-based seat of Clark, where the Labor Party received the lowest vote in its history in a state it used to dominate.

One senior Tasmanian Liberal said they expected Premier Peter Gutwein to honour his promise to resign if the party failed to gain enough seats needed to govern in its own right, but counting in Clark made that unlikely and a 4 per cent swing against the Labor Party meant the opposition would not be in a position to form government.