The B.C. NDP has now pulled ahead of the B.C. Conservatives by 14 votes in the riding of Surrey-Guildford as the final count in the provincial election continues, meaning the party is now elected or leading in 47 seats — the number required to form a majority government.
According to the latest batch of absentee ballots counted by Elections B.C., NDP incumbent Garry Begg has overtaken Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa in what could end up being the riding that determines the balance of power in the province.
As the provincial vote count currently stands, the NDP has been elected in 45 ridings and is leading in two, with the Conservatives elected in 41 and leading in three. The B.C. Greens have been elected in two ridings.
Elections B.C. is posting new results every hour as it counts about 22,000 absentee ballots. Results are being posted to CBC News B.C. Votes 2024 page as they become available.
Other close races as of noon PT Monday include:
- Kelowna Centre: Conservative Kristina Loewn leads the NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge by 62 votes.
- Juan de Fuca-Malahat: NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse leads Conservative Marina Sapozhnikov by 114 votes.
- Courtenay-Comox: Conservative Brennan Day leads NDP Ronna-Rae Leonard by 123 votes.
Meanwhile, CBC News has projected that Conservative Lawrence Mok has won the riding of Maple Ridge East, flipping it from the NDP.
CBC News earlier announced the NDP was projected to win in Surrey City Centre, where the difference is currently 190 votes.
WATCH | Elections B.C. explains today’s count:
British Columbia’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, breaks down how vote-counting in B.C. works, from mail-in ballots to judicial recounts.
Elections B.C. began counting more than 22,000 absentee ballots Monday morning, after recounts and a tally of mail-in votes on the weekend failed to settle the election’s outcome.
Neither David Eby’s B.C. NDP nor John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives have yet scored with the magic number of 47 seats required to form a majority in the province’s 93-seat legislature.
The winner of the 2024 B.C. election will be decided on Monday, with the tallying of around 22,000 absentee votes, after an updated count of mail-in ballots over the weekend failed to produce a clear winner. Officials spent Saturday and Sunday counting the approximately 44,000 mail-in ballots that were sent in after the close of advance voting, but said they weren’t enough to give a definitive answer.
While the makeup of the legislature could become clear, judicial recounts could still take place after that if the margin in a riding is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.
For example, in the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where an estimated 19,306 votes were cast, the margin for a judicial recount is about 38 votes or fewer.
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.