B.C. election results: NDP gains ground in first release of mail-in ballot data

Elections BC released its first partial results of the final count in B.C.'s 2024 provincial election Saturday afternoon, and the data shows NDP candidates gaining in some tight races.

So far, though, the tallying of mail-in and absentee ballots has not changed the leader in any electoral district.

The closest race in the province, as of Elections BC's 1 p.m. update, was in Surrey-Guildford, where Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa led NDP incumbent Garry Begg by just 14 votes.

In the initial count after election night, Randhawa's lead was 103 votes.

The two closest races on election night were led by the NDP candidates, and each candidate has extended their lead in the latest data.

Dana Lajeunesse extended his lead over Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov in Juan de Fuca-Malahat from just 23 votes on election night to 106 votes in the latest update.

In Surrey City Centre, it was a similar story for NDP candidate Amna Shah, who extended her lead over the Conservatives' Zeeshan Wahla from 95 votes to 162 votes.

Two other races were within one percentage point on Saturday afternoon. Those were Courtenay-Comox – where Conservative Brennan Day led NDP incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard by 237 votes, slightly more than the 234 he led by on election night – and Kelowna Centre, where Conservative Kristina Loewen led the NDP's Loyal Wooldridge by 147 votes, one fewer than she led by on election night.

Notably, hundreds of ballots remain to be counted in each of these five closest ridings.

Going into Saturday, Elections BC said there were 681 ballots outstanding in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, 476 in Surrey City Centre, 995 in Courtenay-Comox, 818 in Kelowna Centre and 634 in Surrey-Guildford.

Elections BC said it planned to count ballots in the closest ridings first, and Saturday's 1 p.m. update shows an additional 452 votes were counted in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, 268 in Surrey City Centre and 384 in Surrey-Guildford.

Courtenay-Comox saw only six new votes added to its tally in the latest update, while Kelowna Centre saw only one.

The final count of ballots began Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts. Counting is expected to continue through the weekend and into Monday.

The addition of these 66,000-plus votes has the potential to change the results of the nail-bitingly close election, which saw the initial count conclude last weekend with the B.C. NDP leading in 46 ridings, the B.C. Conservative Party leading in 45 and the B.C. Greens leading in two.

Forty-seven seats are required for a majority, so a gain of one seat for the NDP or two seats for the Conservatives in the final count could give that party the ability to form a government without help from another party's MLAs.

If the riding tally ends up unchanged, the Greens will hold the balance of power in a minority legislature, with either NDP Leader David Eby or Conservative Leader John Rustad needing support from Green MLAs to become premier.

Data released by Elections BC Friday afternoon shows a total of 66,074 "certification envelopes" accepted for the final count.

The counting process will involve opening the envelopes and separating the ballots inside from the envelopes themselves and from their security sleeves.

Any envelopes that contain no ballot or multiple ballots will be set aside and not counted, Elections BC said.

Elections BC said earlier this week that it plans to share partial results from its final count at 1 p.m. and again at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and again at those times on Sunday.

CTV News will be updating this article with the latest results as they come in over the weekend.