As of 6:00 PM Sunday, Oct 20th
A minority government remains a distinct possibility in B.C. following the Provincial Election on Saturday.
According to Elections BC, with 100 per cent of ballot boxes reporting and the initial count complete, the NDP is leading or elected in 46 ridings, the Conservatives are ahead or elected in 45 ridings and the Green Party is leading or elected in two.
47 seats are needed to form a majority government.
The NDP received 44.60 % of the vote (908,944 total), the Conservatives 43.57 % (887,909 total) and the Green Party 8.19 % (166,863 total).
None of the record 40 independents were able to capture a seat.
Two of the ridings are within 100 votes so there will be a recount between October 26th and 28th.
In Juan de Fuca-Malahat, Dana Lajeunesse of the NDP finished just 23 votes ahead of Marina Sapozhnikov of the Conservatives (8,943 to 8,920).
In Surrey City Centre, Amna Shah of the NDP finished 96 votes in front of Zeeshan Wahla of the Conservative Party (6,439 to 6,343).
Initial count is complete. Final count is scheduled for October 26 to 28: https://t.co/h4sHeaRHQI
— Elections BC (@ElectionsBC) October 20, 2024
The Final count, according to Elections BC, will be start Saturday (October 26th).
Final count includes absentee and mail-in ballots that are not counted at initial count.
The majority of the ballots counted at final count will be mail-in ballots.
Elections BC estimates that approximately 49,000 additional ballots will be considered as part of final count.
More details can be found out here.
The preliminary voter turnout is 57.4 per cent with 2,038,061 total valid votes.
Updated by Hartley Miller
As of 9:36 AM Sunday, Oct 20th
A winner has still not been determined in the October 19th B.C. election.
The NDP is leading or elected in 46 ridings, the Conservatives in 45 and the Green Party in 2.
The NDP and Conservatives have elected 42 and the Greens 2 with the other seven ridings waiting for more results to determine a winner.
47 seats are needed to form a majority government.
Voter turnout is 57.4 % with more than two million British Columbians casting a ballot.
Updated by Hartley Miller, My Prince George Now
As of 12:36 AM Sunday, Oct 20th
We still are waiting to find out who will form government in BC.
In what was anticipated to be a tight battle lived up to its billing on election night (Saturday) with the NDP leading or elected in 46 out of the 93 ridings, one ahead of the Conservatives who sit with 45.
The BC Greens sit a distant third with two.
The Greens need to secure two seats in order to maintain official party status.
Incumbent NDP leader David Eby won his riding in Vancouver-Point Gray with 56.75% of the vote defeating Paul Ratchford of the Conservatives (34.64% of the vote).
Conservative leader John Rustad won handily in his Nechako Lakes riding claiming 67.70% of the vote – the next closest was Murphy Abraham of the BC NDP who tallied 27% of the vote.
Lastly, BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau (33.54% of the vote) was beaten in Victoria-Beacon Hill by Grace Lore (47.24%) of the NDP.
As of 12:30 a.m. Sunday (Oct 20th) the results look like this:
- NDP: 46 seats, 895,763 votes, 44.56%
- Conservatives: 45 seats, 874,550 votes, 43.48%
- Green: 2 seats, 167,180, 8.31%
47 seats are needed to form a majority government.
Elections BC issued the following statement on the initial vote count at 12:10 a.m.:
99.72% of preliminary results have been reported and counting will continue for the next hour. Any electoral districts that are unable to complete initial count tonight will continue counting tomorrow morning. Due to election official availability and weather-related disruptions, we will not have complete preliminary results tonight for Cariboo-Chilcotin, Surrey-Newton and North Coast-Haida Gwaii.
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.Â
Automatic recounts will take place in electoral districts where the margin between the top two candidates is 100 votes or fewer at the conclusion of initial count. These recounts will take place during final count, scheduled for October 26 to 28.
Some types of ballots must be counted at final count and were not counted tonight. 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. We will report the number of ballots that will be considered at final count and will provide this information as soon as possible.
Elections BC Statement – Initial Count Update: https://t.co/LuTWUq1Bfd
— Elections BC (@ElectionsBC) October 20, 2024
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