Elections B.C. has begun counting more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee ballots from across the 93 ridings in the province, with the potential for several close ridings to be flipped, which could decide the outcome of last week's extremely tight provincial election.
The counting of these mail-in and absentee ballots began today and is expected to wrap up by late Sunday. Meanwhile, Elections BC is conducting full recounts beginning Sunday in two very close ridings 香蕉视频直播� Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre 香蕉视频直播� where the margin of victory in the initial tally was less than 100 votes. A partial hand recount will also take place in Kelowna Centre due to a transcription error of one vote.
Preliminary results in Vernon-Lumby have NDP incumbent candidate Harwinder Sandhu with 11,528 votes, which puts her ahead of Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht by a margin of 384 votes.
According to Elections B.C., in Vernon-Lumby there are 464 mail-in ballots and 138 absentee ballots left to count, for a total of 602 votes.
That means the race is not over, although Giesbrecht will have to win the large majority of those 602 votes to flip the riding in favour of the Conservatives.
Sandhu came short of declaring victory on election night Saturday, Oct. 19, but did so via on Thursday. Giesbrecht told The Morning Star on election night that the results were too close to call and he would wait until the results of the final count were in before conceding.
Provincially, neither the BC NDP not the Conservative Party of B.C. have earned the 47 seats needed to form a majority government. Preliminary results show that the NDP has won or is leading in 46 ridings; the BC Conservatives currently control 45 seats; and the BC Greens have secured two seats.
It won't be until Monday, when the final count officially concludes, before the makeup of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria will be finalized.
- With files from The Canadian Press
