Rosevears Liberal candidate Jo Palmer has harnessed more than 40 per cent of first-preference votes in this year’s upper house election with only booths in West Launceston and Riverside to count. Earlier in the count, the race clearly become a tussle between Ms Palmer and independent candidate Janie Finlay. With all but the two booths left to count, Ms Palmer had obtained 3002 first-preference votes and Ms Finlay 2206 – or 30.6 per cent of all primary votes. Labor candidate Jess Greene was the next closest to the two candidates with 8.8 per cent of all primary votes. This means the fate of Ms Palmer and Ms Finlay will rest on the distribution of preferences. In the Huon electorate, Labor candidate Bastian Siedel is well ahead of independent incumbent Robert Armstrong. Ms Siedel has obtained 2906 primary votes to Mr Armstrong’s 1583 votes. Greens candidate Pat Caruana received 1923 votes. Sign up to one of our newsletters: