The B.C. NDP has won the riding of Surrey-Guildford by a handful of votes, paving the way to a majority government.
Surrey-Guildford incumbent Garry Begg beat Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa by just 27 votes, according to final results posted by Elections B.C. on Monday evening.
However, the riding will be subject to an automatic judicial recount, as the margin was less than 1/500th of the total ballots cast in the riding.
If the results stand, the NDP will have the 47 seats required to form a majority government. CBC News has not projected a winner for the riding, pending the judicial recount.
Elections B.C. had been posting new results every hour as it counted about 22,000 absentee ballots on Monday morning. Final results are available at CBC News B.C. Votes 2024.
On Monday night, it released its final vote count.
Conservative Brennan Day won the riding of Courtenay-Comox over the NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard by 92 votes.
After two races that were too close to call over the weekend, NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse won in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, and Conservative candidate Kristina Loewen won in Kelowna Centre.
Conservative Lawrence Mok won the riding of Maple Ridge East, flipping it from the NDP.
Meanwhile, the NDP won in Surrey City Centre after candidate Amna Shah captured 236 votes more than Conservative Zeeshan Wahla.
British Columbia’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, breaks down how vote-counting in B.C. works, from mail-in ballots to judicial recounts.
Judicial recounts will take place in two ridings where the winning margin was less than 1/500th of all votes cast: Kelowna Centre, where the Conservatives won by 38 votes, and Surrey-Guildford, where the margin of victory was just 27 votes.
Judicial recounts are overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court justice and, according to the B.C. Election Act, must take place within 15 days after the declaration of the official election results.
How does the CBC make projections in an election? Well, let’s go behind the scenes and find out what goes into calls and managing coverage on election night. The team works hard to ensure that results are brought to you accurately every time.