Elections BC says votes will be recounted in two ridings where the provincial NDP and Conservative candidates are separated by fewer than 100 votes — including one in Surrey.
The agency says recounts will take place in the key ridings of Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat as part of the final count between Oct. 26 and 28, meaning the result of B.C.’s election won’t be official for another week.
After Election Night (Oct. 19), the NDP under David Eby are leading or elected in 46 seats, with the Conservatives under John Rustad having 45. The B.C. Greens have the remaining two.
Both ridings that are set for recount have NDP candidates in the lead right now: Amna Shah in Surrey City Centre and Dana Lajeunesse in Juan de Fuca-Malahat.
The race in Surrey City Centre was tight throughout the night, with Shah never able to pull far away from Conservative challenger Zeeshan Wahla.
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.
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 for reasons specified in the act.
After final counts, any riding where the difference between the top two candidates is less than 1/500th of the votes cast must go to a judicial recount.
Another tight Surrey race, Surrey-Guildford, just missed the threshold for automatic recount, as Conservative challenger Honveer Singh Randhawa, a legal professional, edged NDP incumbent Gary Begg by 102 votes.
- with files from Canadian Press
