B.C. NDP newcomer Amna Shah will need to wait a few more days to find out if she has in fact won the Surrey City Centre riding.
In one of B.C.'s tightest election races, Shah topped the polls Surrey-City Centre for the NDP — but the razor-thin margin of victory over Conservative challenger Zeeshan Wahla means it's one two ridings in B.C. that are now set for an automatic recount.
First-time candidate Shah campaigned to keep the seat for the NDP in a battle for votes with challengers Ryan Abbott (Communist Party of B.C.), Colin Boyd (B.C. Green Party), Wahla (Conservative Party) and Saeed Naguib (Independent).
At the end of the night, with all polls except out-of-district ballots reported, Shah was up 6,439 votes to Wahla's 6,343, a 96-vote lead that put it under the 100-vote threshold for recount. Out-of-district ballots were counted by Elections BC into Sunday with results just reported (Sunday, Oct. 20), and those numbers remain unchanged.
Surrey City Centre is one of two B.C. ridings to meet the threshold for automatic recount; the other is Juan de Fuca-Malahat on Vancouver Island.
These recounts will take place as part of final count between Oct. 26 and 28, Elections BC notes. Under the Election Act, ballots at district electoral officer recounts are counted manually, by hand. Candidates or official agents can also request district electoral officer recounts until Oct. 22.
The riding, formerly Surrey-Whalley, has long been held by Bruce Ralston, who in July announced he wouldn't seek re-election after a 19-year political career in Victoria.
Shah, a two-decade Surrey resident who has worked on projects involving affordable housing and Surrey Food Bank, faced competition for votes from Conservative Party of BC challenger Zeeshan Wahla, a professional engineer and father of four who runs an engineering consulting business. Arriving in B.C. as an immigrant in 2007, Wahla hails from a family "steeped in a tradition of hard work and perseverance," according to a biography.
Shah, announced as the NDP candidate in Surrey City Centre in August, along with NDP candidates in the nine other Surrey ridings, has worked to connect diverse communities to their government, according to Ralston. "She knows and understands people’s issues, and acts to make things better," Ralston stated in August. "As a director of Surrey Food Bank, she’s also taken action directly to ensure that everyone in Surrey can have nutritious food to eat. She will fight for the people of Surrey City Centre every day.”
In the 2020 provincial election in Surrey-Whalley, Ralston nearly doubled the number of votes of his nearest challenger, BC Liberal candidate Shaukat Khan.
This fall during the campaign, Shah said she has lived in "the great city of Surrey for 20 years, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else."
Growing up, she said, "I was taught about the importance of compassion, public service and standing up for your community. It’s why I’ve spent my professional life fighting for the people of Surrey, through my work moving forward affordable housing policies and projects, and by expanding distribution services at the Surrey Food Bank.
"But there’s so much more to do – people in our community are having a tough time making ends meet, it’s expensive. That’s why I’m running to be your MLA for Surrey City Centre. Like David Eby and the B.C. NDP, I believe in Surrey’s potential and working to make people’s lives better and more affordable."
