National

Absentee ballot count could settle B.C.'s election, nine days after vote

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 28 Oct, 2024 09:56 AM

British Columbia's election could finally be decided Monday with the counting of absentee ballots, after recounts and a tally of mail-in votes failed to settle the contest on the weekend.

Neither Premier David Eby's New Democrats nor John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives emerged from the weekend with the magic number of 47 seats required to form a majority in the province's 93-seat legislature.

But the counting increased the prospects for an NDP government, when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut to just 12 votes.

All eyes will be on that Metro Vancouver seat when counting resumes at 9 a.m., with 226 absentee votes to count there.

More than 22,000 absentee ballots provincewide that are to be counted Monday could hold the key to the Oct. 19 election, and Elections BC says it will provide hourly updates of the results.

The current standings have the NDP leading or elected in 46 ridings, with the B.C. Conservatives leading or elected in 45 and the Greens with two elected members.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and hangs onto all other ridings where it leads, it will secure the narrowest of majorities.

Elections BC says there was no shift in the party standings after the weekend count of mail-in and assisted-telephone ballots was completed on Sunday.

A full hand recount in Surrey City Centre resulted in the NDP lead there being reduced by three votes, to 175, while a partial recount in Kelowna Centre saw the Conservative lead cut by four votes, to 68.

The result of a full recount in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP lead by 113 votes, is also to be announced Monday.

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 were cast, the margin for a judicial recount is about 38 votes or fewer.

Aisha Estey, president of the B.C. Conservative Party, said she spent the weekend in a warehouse watching the counting of mail-in ballots.

In a post on social media, she said: "Elections BC staff have been working tirelessly and doing their best within the confines of the legislation that governs their work."

"Would we have liked mail-ins to be counted closer to (election day)? Sure," she added. "But I saw nothing that caused me concern."

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

London Drugs phone lines working, stores still closed after cybersecurity incident

London Drugs says its phone lines are working again after being taken offline in response to a cybersecurity incident. A statement from the Richmond, B.C.-based pharmacy and retail chain says Canada Post offices inside London Drugs stores are also up and running again.

London Drugs phone lines working, stores still closed after cybersecurity incident

Macklem says he doesn't think federal budget will have much of an impact on inflation

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said he doesn't think the federal budget tabled last month will have much of an effect on inflation. Macklem was testifying at a Senate committee alongside senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers on Wednesday following the central bank's latest interest rate announcement.

Macklem says he doesn't think federal budget will have much of an impact on inflation

B.C. launches portal to help find hotel rooms for emergency evacuees

British Columbia's hotel association says a new central booking portal will help speed up the process of finding places to stay for emergency evacuees. A statement says the system launching in June will provide provincial emergency support staff with live information on room availability, eliminating the need to call hotels to find out.

B.C. launches portal to help find hotel rooms for emergency evacuees

Woman with a knife arrested at New Westminster post-secondary school

Police in New Westminster, B.C., say they were called to a post-secondary school in the city when staff reported that a woman armed with a knife was inside the building. The woman was not a student at the institution and police say students and staff feared for their safety.

Woman with a knife arrested at New Westminster post-secondary school

B.C's auditor general to review government's response to 2021 Lytton wildfire

British Columbia's auditor general says his office is doing a review of the province's response to the 2021 wildfire that devastated the community of Lytton, B.C. Michael Pickup says in a video statement that the report will focus on the B.C. government's roles and responsibilities for disaster recovery, its support for Lytton, including funding, challenges that came with rebuilding and how the province can improve.

B.C's auditor general to review government's response to 2021 Lytton wildfire

LNG company's plan for floating work camp is rejected by Squamish, B.C.

Plans to use a renovated cruise ship to house more than 600 workers as they build a liquefied natural gas facility near Squamish, B.C., have been voted down by the local council. The ship arrived in B.C. waters in January after a 40-day journey from Estonia, where it had sheltered Ukrainian refugees, but Woodfibre LNG didn't obtain a permit from the district to operate the so-called "floatel."