What is at stake in the 2021 Tasmanian state election?

Calling an election a year ahead of schedule was always a huge gamble for Tasmania’s Premier, as voters often don’t take well to being forced to the ballot box early.

With public polling indicating skyrocketing popularity for the Liberals off the back of the pandemic response, it was a risk Peter Gutwein was willing to take.

But few could have predicted the way the short, sharp election campaign would play out.

The last time a Tasmanian government went to the polls dramatically early was more than 30 years ago, in 1989.

It backfired on then-Liberal premier Robin Gray, and the result was a hung parliament — something the Liberals…