Election too close to call

British Columbians will go to bed without a clear winner of the provincial election.

BC Conservative leader John Rustad took the stage late Saturday night to announce he is still hanging onto the possibility of a majority government.

“We are so close right now. There are just a couple of seats that are just within 20-30, votes that could very easily flip for us. There's still votes yet to be counted,” Rustad said.

“I'm optimistic that the people in this province are hungry for that change.”

With over 98% of votes counted, the BC NDP was leading or elected in 46 seats, followed by the BC Conservatives at 45 seats and the Greens with two seats.

Forty-seven seats are needed to form a majority government.

Rustad told supporters that even if David Eby's NDP returned to power in a minority government he would take "every opportunity" to bring them down.

Premier David Eby acknowledged that the final count is still not clear.

“But what we do know is that there was a clear majority for the progressive values,” said Eby.

“There was also another message in this narrowest of margins, and that's we got to do better, and that was our commitment to British Columbians.”

Eby said he had his differences with Rustad but "I will absolutely acknowledge that he spoke to the frustrations" of British Columbians.

Recounts are automatic for ridings that are within a 100-vote margin of victory. Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat are both within that and are being led by the NDP. Both of them flipping would result in a Conservative majority government.

Both Eby and Rustad retained their seats, while Green Leader Sonia Furstenau lost to the NDP's Grace Lore after switching ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill.

He also said he was committed to working with Furstenau, whose party could hold the balance of power in a minority government after winning two seats.

Regardless of the final outcome, it was a spectacular turnaround for the Conservatives, who won less than 2 per cent of the vote in the last election, and for Rustad, who led them out of the political wilderness.

B.C. Conservatives president Aisha Estey called it "the ultimate underdog story" and relished what she called a "historic campaign."

"Whether it's government tonight or official opposition, we're not going anywhere. There's a Conservative Party in B.C. now finally," she said. "We're back."

Final results won't come for a week

Elections BC says we likely won’t know the election's final results for another week.

Automatic recounts will take place Oct. 26 to 28, said the organization.

At 12:15 a.m. on Sunday, 99.72% of preliminary results had been reported and counting would take place for another hour.

“Any electoral districts that are unable to complete initial count tonight will continue counting tomorrow morning,” said Elections BC in their overnight statement.

“Sixteen districts are continuing to count out-of-district ballots. These ballots take longer to count for several reasons. With B.C.’s vote anywhere model, some districts are reporting out-of-district results from dozens of other contests. Write-in ballots also take longer to count than ordinary ballots,” Elections BC continued.

There are other votes that have not been counted tonight but will be during the final count Oct. 26 to 29.

“These include vote-by-mail ballots that were received by mail after the close of advance voting or dropped off in person at a voting place or district electoral office,” Elections BC said.

“We will report the number of ballots that will be considered at final count and will provide this information as soon as possible.”

with files from The Canadian Press