B.C. election results: NDP pulls ahead in key riding that could help party clinch majority

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby arrives to address supporters on election night in Vancouver, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

The ongoing count of absentee ballots in B.C.’s nail-biting 2024 provincial election has put the NDP ahead of the Conservatives in one key riding – which could help the party clinch a narrow majority of seats.

As of the latest tally provided by Elections B.C. on Monday, the NDP’s Garry Begg was leading Conservative opponent Honveer Singh Randhawa in Surrey-Guildford – but only by nine votes.

The current results have incumbent Premier David Eby’s NDP leading in 47 ridings, which would be enough for the party to retain its majority by the slimmest of margins.

But there are still more ballots to count – and there’s also the potential for judicial recounts, overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court Justice.

Those are triggered in ridings where the leading candidate is ahead by less than one-five-hundredth of total ballots cast, which would be about 38 votes in Surrey-Guildford.

Randhawa was ahead by 103 votes in the initial count on election night, but his gap closed to a mere 12 votes after mail-in and assisted telephone ballots were tallied over the weekend.

Elections B.C. began counting roughly 22,500 additional absentee ballots across the province’s 93 ridings on Monday, and will be providing updates hourly until the process is finished.

There were an estimated 226 absentee ballots in Surrey-Guildford, and approximately 70 still had to be counted as of the last update, which was posted at 1 p.m. PST.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

 

Previous story by The Canadian Press follows: 

An ongoing count of absentee ballots in British Columbia's election has seen the NDP cut the B.C. Conservatives' lead in a key riding to just four votes.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and holds onto other leads, it will be elected or leading in 47 seats, which is the threshold for a majority in the legislature.

Monday's count of more than 22,000 absentee and special ballots provincewide could finally produce a winner in the election, nine days after the Oct. 19 vote.

Recounts and a tally of mail-in votes failed to settle the contest on the weekend, with neither Premier David Eby's New Democrats nor John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives emerging on Sunday with a majority.

But the mail-in count increased the prospects for an NDP government when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut sharply.

All eyes have been on that Metro Vancouver seat since counting resumed at 9 a.m., with 226 absentee votes to count, and results are being updated hourly on the Elections BC website.

In the first two hours of counting, the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut from 12 to 4 votes.

The party went into the weekend's count of mail-in and assisted telephone votes with a lead of 103.

The current standings have the NDP leading or elected in 46 ridings, with the B.C. Conservatives leading or elected in 45 and the Greens with two elected members.

While the makeup of the legislature is expected to become clear on Monday, judicial recounts could still take place after that if the margin in a riding is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.

In Surrey-Guildford, where an estimated 19,306 votes were cast, the margin for a judicial recount is about 38 votes or fewer.

A full hand recount on Sunday in Surrey City Centre resulted in the NDP lead there being reduced by three votes, to 175, while a partial recount in Kelowna Centre saw the Conservative lead cut by four votes, to 68.

That has been a further cut to 60 in the absentee count.

The result of a full recount in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP lead by 109 votes, is also to be announced Monday.

Aisha Estey, president of the B.C. Conservative Party, said she spent the weekend in a warehouse watching the counting of mail-in ballots.

In a post on social media, she said: "Elections BC staff have been working tirelessly and doing their best within the confines of the legislation that governs their work."

"Would we have liked mail-ins to be counted closer to (election day)? Sure," she added. "But I saw nothing that caused me concern."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2024.