Elections BC has unveiled its breakdown of the outstanding ballots still to be counted in the closely-contested provincial election.
There are now six different ridings which can be considered “in play.”
Among them adding to the intrigue heading into this weekend’s “final count” is Vernon-Lumby.
The breakdown shows a total of 602 ballots to be added to Election BC’s totals in that riding.
This includes 464 mail-in or special telephone votes, on top of 138 absentee ballots.
This puts the riding still within doubt, as NDP incumbent Harwinder Sandhu currently leads Vernon-Lumby by 385 votes over Kamloops-based BC Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht, who was installed in that riding by the Conservatives after Peter Milobar announced his intention to run for the Conservatives, and took over the campaign in Kamloops-Centre, where Giesbrecht had first started to run.
The outstanding ballots for other ridings in the region, including Kamloops Centre, Kamloops-North Thompson, Cariboo-Chilcotin, Salmon Arm-Shuswap and Fraser-Nicola are not enough to affect the outcomes, where BC Conservative candidates all prevailed following general voting day on Saturday.
Vernon-Lumby adds to other narrow races
There are five other races which could affect the outcomes projected in the initial count which followed general voting day on Saturday.
They include Kelowna Centre, where the BC Conservative candidate holds a lead by 148 votes over their NDP opponent, but with 818 ballots left to count.
Incumbent New Democrat Ronna-Rae Leonard in Courtenay-Comox still has an outside shot, as there are 995 outstanding votes to be added into the mix.
Leonard, who has been in office since 2017, does trail here Conservative opponent by 234 votes in the Vancouver Island riding.
In Surrey, another veteran of the NDP ranks also has a slim chance at re-election.
Gary Begg, who has represented Surrey-Guilford since 2017, but is down by 107 votes to his BC Conservative opponent, has seen 634 votes added to his riding’s count.
At the same time, officially-mandated recounts are also taking place this weekend in the closely-contested Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat ridings, where the NDP leads both with less than 100 votes.
There are 476 votes still to be counted in Surrey City Centre, where the NDP candidate in the new riding holds a narrow 95 vote lead over her BC Conservative opponent.
The outstanding vote figures for Juan de Fuca-Malahat make that race even more interesting, as the NDP candidate holds just a 23 vote lead over the BC Conservative, with 681 votes left to count.
Work to finalize the “final count” will take place through the weekend, with results expected on Monday.
Initial results have the New Democrats in the lead, holding 46 seats, compared to the 45 currently held by the BC Conservatives.
Forty-seven seats are required for a majority.
If the results of the weekend count do not change the results from the initial count, the NDP would be able to form a minority government, with the two BC Green Party MLA-elects poised to control the balance of power.
Results of the weekend count are expected on Monday.
However, some observers have warned that the “final count” by Elections BC could lead to a judicial recount, depending on the margins involved.
It’s not clear how long this would delay the outcome and the formation of a new provincial government.
