Former longtime Wilderness Society campaign manager Vica Bayley will enter Parliament when sittings resume next week to take the seat left vacant by former Greens leader Cassy O'Connor last month.
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The electoral commission at midday on Monday started the redistribution of Ms O'Connor's 10,626 ballot papers among 10 candidates.
Mr Bayley scored 37 per cent of the Ms O'Connor's preferences from the start, compared to the next leading Greens candidate Bec Taylor who won 27 per cent of preferences.
The margin between the two Green candidates narrowed progressively as candidates were excluded from the contest with significantly more votes from party candidate Tim Smith going to Ms Taylor over Mr Bayley.
Mr Bayley had 45.4 per cent of votes to Ms Taylor's 40.6 per cent of votes by the time it came down to the distribution of independent candidate Sue Hickey's 1454 votes - or 15 per cent of votes overall.
Mr Bayley won the majority of Ms Hickey's votes at the end of the count, ensuring his election.
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A trained teacher, Mr Bayley - through his role with the Wilderness Society - played an instrumental party in the negotiation of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement during Labor's last years in power between 2010 and 2014.
In 2019, he ran as an independent in Nelson Legislative Council election where he came in third to fellow independent Meg Webb and Liberal candidate Nic Street.
After the recount, Mr Bayley said he entered Tasmanian Parliament at an interesting time.
"I think the dynamics in the House of Assembly are exciting," he said.
"Minority power-sharing parliaments are a thing of the world and they're actually a thing of the future.
"The House of Assembly at its next election will go to 35 seats and that presents huge opportunities, not only for us as the Greens, but for Tasmania to elect a real diversity of people that it wants there."
An agreement was reached on Tuesday between fellow Green parliamentarian Rosalie Woodruff and Mr Bayley for her to be the new party leader.
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
