B.C. Election: Final vote count begins in razor-thin race

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When vote counting resumed on Saturday, the NDP stretched its lead in two key races and moved within 12 votes of the B.C. Conservatives in a third.

No leads have changed in nine races that are too close to call, and the elections B.C. update shows the prospect of an NDP government.

The NDP now leads in Juan de Fuca-Malahat by 106 votes, up from 23, while the party’s candidate leads in Surrey City Centre by 178 votes.

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Voters in Surrey City Centre whom Postmedia talked to, about three dozen of them, expressed apathy toward the recount in their riding.

At the Surrey Central SkyTrain station, across the tracks from a large poster of Conservative candidate Zeeshan Wahla, Amandeep Grewal said “we are busy, we are studying, we don’t have time for these things.”

One woman ordering a plate of tikka channa from a Pink Tiger food truck at the Red FM Diwali Dhamaka in Surrey Civic Plaza said, over the speakers blaring the music of DJ Klassi on stage: “Look, people don’t care unless Justin Trudeau is gone.”

Jay McGuinty, whose wife is seven months pregnant, said the recount doesn’t matter to them.

“I don’t think it will make a difference either way,” he said. “What would make a difference to us is if we could afford a house here, but that’s not going to happen. We’re moving to Calgary.”

Because results aren’t official, there is no official voter turnout, but the 10 ridings in Surrey and White Rock average about 36,000 voters, and there were only slightly more than 14,000 votes cast in Surrey City Centre.

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The riding is new, made up from bits of Whalley, Green Timbers and Guildford.

The Conservatives had hoped to flip NDP leads in that riding and in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, the two closest races after the initial count ended last Sunday, but instead the ongoing tally of mail-in votes had the NDP pull ahead.

The NDP now leads in Juan de Fuca-Malahat by 106 votes, up from 23.

In Surrey Guildford, where the Conservatives had held a 103-vote lead, the NDP has moved within 12 votes with 8,809 to the Conservatives’ 8,821.

The initial tally after the Oct. 19 election ended with neither the NDP nor the Conservatives securing the 47 ridings needed to form a majority in the 93-seat
legislature.

The NDP lead widened in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, but there was little change to margins in other tight races.

There were more than 43,000 mail-in ballots to be counted in all 93 ridings across the province, in a process expected to be complete Sunday.

The elections authority will also conduct full recounts beginning on Sunday in the ridings of Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre because their margins after the initial count were less than 100.

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There will also be a partial hand recount in Kelowna Centre due to a transcription error involving one tabulator used in the riding.

The final tally will then be completed on Monday with the counting of more than 22,000 absentee ballots, with results updated on Election B.C.’s website hourly that day.

But even after that, judicial recounts could be requested by a candidate if the margin in their riding is less than 1/500th of all votes counted.

With files from The Canadian Press

gordmcintyre@postmedia.com

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