Recounts now underway

UPDATE: 1:30 p.m.

Elections BC had now added more updated mail-in vote numbers on its website, but no new updates have been added in any of the province's tightest 10 ridings.

The latest update comes after the mail-in votes were counted Saturday for B.C.'s more closely contested ridings.

With Sunday's 1 p.m. update, Kelowna Centre's BC Conservative candidate Kristina Lowen maintains her 72 vote lead over the BC NDP's Loyal Wooldridge. There remains 228 absentee ballots left to count in the riding, which will take place Monday.

The closest riding in the province continues to be Surrey-Guilford, where the BC Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa holds a 12 vote lead over BC NDP candidate Garry Begg. There remains 226 absentee ballots left to count in that riding.

The automatic recounts in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings are now underway, as is the partial recount in the Kelowna Centre riding, due to a transcription error involving one tabulator used in the riding.

The results of the Kelowna Centre and Surrey City Centre recounts are expected to be completed Sunday, while the Juan de Fuca-Malahat recount won't be done until Monday.

The final absentee ballots in all ridings will be counted on Monday, when British Columbians will finally know the final results of the Oct. 19 election.

Currently, the BC NDP is leading in 46 ridings, compared to the BC Conservatives' 45 and the Green Party's two.

UPDATE: 11:10 a.m.

The resumption of counting in last week's nail-biting British Columbia election has seen the NDP widen its lead in two crucial races and move within 12 votes of the B.C. Conservatives in another.

No leads have changed among a handful of tight races, but tally updates provided by Elections BC increase the prospect of an NDP government.

The Conservatives had been hoping to flip NDP leads in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre, the two closest races after the initial count ended last Sunday, but instead the ongoing tally of mail-in votes saw the NDP pull further ahead.

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, up from 93.

Narrow Conservative leads in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna Centre have dropped below 100.

The initial tally after the Oct. 19 election ended with neither David Eby's NDP nor John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives securing the 47 ridings needed to form a majority in the 93-seat legislature.

As of the Elections BC update at 4 p.m. on Saturday, standings remain unchanged with NDP elected or leading in 46 seats and the Conservatives in 45, while the Greens could hold the balance of power after winning two seats.

But those could change, with the Conservative lawyer Honveer Singh Randhawa's lead in Surrey-Guildford over incumbent New Democrat Garry Begg dropping from 103 votes to just 12, with 226 ballots left to count when absentee and special votes are tallied provincewide on Monday.

Begg, a former RCMP officer, was first elected in 2017 and won the seat in 2020 with more than 60 per cent of the vote.

In Kelowna Centre, a Conservative lead of 148 votes has been pared back to 72, with 228 absentee and special votes to be counted.

If the NDP holds onto its current leads in the undecided races, it will be in a position to form a minority government if it secures Green support, but if it also wins a Conservative-led race such as Surrey-Guildford, it would have the narrowest of majorities.

To form a majority, the Conservatives must flip two ridings where the NDP leads, and while a minority Conservative government remains a possibility, the party's ideological gap with the Greens is wide.

The NDP lead widened in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, while Conservative leads were cut in ridings including Courtney Comox, Maple Ridge East and Surrey Panorama.

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 completed Sunday.

The elections authority will also conduct full recounts beginning on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the ridings of Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre because their margins after the initial count were under 100.

There will 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 and special ballots, with results updated on Election BC's website hourly that day.

But even after that, judicial recounts could occur in ridings where the margin is less than 1/500th of all votes counted.

The B.C. Conservative candidate in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, meanwhile, is facing criticism from within her own party over reported comments about Indigenous people.

On Friday, the Vancouver Sun published a recording in which a person it identifies as Marina Sapozhnikov calls First Nations people "savages." The newspaper says the comments came during an election-night conversation with a journalism student.

Peter Milobar, the Conservative candidate in Kamloops Centre, said on social media platform X that he was "outraged" and "filled with sadness" over Sapozhnikov's alleged comments, which he called "reprehensible."

Sapozhnikov did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Rustad issued a statement on Saturday saying he was "appalled and deeply saddened" by Sapozhnikov's reported comments.

"Her words are not only inaccurate but profoundly harmful, painting a distorted picture of the communities I have worked alongside for many years," the statement read.

Rustad said the remarks do not reflect his party's values.

"We are taking this matter seriously," he said. "As leader, I am fully committed to ensuring that our party leads with respect and understanding for all British Columbians.”

– The Canadian Press

ORIGINAL: 6:35 a.m.

Recounts begin this afternoon in two ridings where British Columbia’s New Democrats held slim leads after the initial count in last week’s still-undecided election.

Elections BC says the recounts in Juan de Fuca-Malahat on Vancouver Island and Surrey City Centre will begin at 1 p.m. and be posted online when they are complete.

The recounts were triggered because their margins after the initial tally last week were below 100, but counting of mail-in ballots on Saturday widened the NDP lead in Juan de Fuca-Malahat to 106 votes, and 178 in Surrey City Centre.

A partial recount will also be conducted in Kelowna Centre due to a transcription error involving one tabulator used in the riding. Following Saturday's counting of mail-in ballots, the BC Conservative lead in that riding was cut to 72.

No leads have so far changed in the mail-in count that continues today, but prospects for an NDP government have increased, as the party widens leads in some close races, and cuts back Conservative margins in others.

The closest undecided riding in the province is Surrey-Guildford, where the Conservative lead was cut to 12 votes on Saturday.

Premier David Eby's NDP is elected or leading in 46 seats and John Rustad's Conservatives in 45, both short of a 47-seat majority, while the Greens could hold the balance of power with two seats.

The final makeup of the 93-seat B.C. legislature won't be known until at least Monday, when more than 22,000 absentee and special votes will be counted.

Judicial recounts could take place after that, if the margin in a riding is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.

– The Canadian Press