'We aren't in the lead'

As B.C. awaits the final election results, Kelowna-Centre candidate Loyal Wooldridge expressed gratitude to supporters through social media.

After the initial count, Wooldridge remains behind Conservative candidate Kristina Loewen by 147 votes. No major media outlets have called the riding at this stage.

“While the final count is still to come in the next few days, as of right now, we aren’t in the lead," Wooldridge shared on social media Sunday night.

"Thank you, Kelowna Centre! I’m incredibly proud of our campaign and the progressive movement we’ve built together.

Loewen declared her victory in the Kelowna Centre riding on Saturday night just after 11 p.m.

“With the margin that I have, I am excited to represent the people of Kelowna Centre. This is such an honour for me, and I am so grateful. I chose to stand up, speak up, and do a difficult thing. This has been a grassroots movement, and tonight we defeated the NDP,” Loewen said.

Elections BC says that the current vote count does not include approximately 49,000 absentee and mail-in ballots across B.C., which will be factored into the final tally beginning Saturday that will happen alongside required recounts.

It is not clear how many ballots there are still left to count in the Kelowna-Centre riding.

Automatic recounts will take place Oct. 26 to 28, triggered by a margin of victory by less than 100 votes, which is the case in two ridings being led by the BC NDP; Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre, Judicial recounts are possible if the margin between the top two candidates is less than 1/500th of the total ballots cast.