There is still no clear winner in the 2024 B.C. election after counting resumed on Saturday, Elections B.C. says.
A tallying of mail-in and absentee voting ballots has widened the B.C. NDP’s lead in two ridings and helped closed the gap between it and the Conservatives in a third, but the outcome for the districts isn’t yet known.
Before counting resumed on Saturday, the B.C. NDP were leading or elected in 46 seats, the B.C. Conservatives in 45 seats and the B.C. Greens were elected in two seats. In the B.C. Legislature, 47 seats are required to form a majority government.
Elections B.C. released updated election results at 1 p.m. on Saturday, with a further update set to come later in the day.
Prior to Saturday’s updated results, CBC News had not projected the outcome for 11 ridings, with the NDP leading in six of those and the Conservatives in five.
No ridings were flipped due to the updated results. However, CBC News is projecting that the NDP will win the riding of Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, a riding the party was already leading in.
The NDP’s lead over the B.C. Conservatives in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding has grown to 106 votes from the previous 20 votes, with an estimated 229 special ballots left to be counted there.
The NDP’s lead in the Surrey City Centre riding has grown to 162 votes from the previous 93. There are an estimated 208 special ballots left to be counted in the riding.
With the winner of the B.C. election yet to be determined, political scientist Hamish Telford sheds light on what could come next, and says it’s possible the NDP is looking for a partnership with the Greens like the one it had after the 2017 vote.
In addition to the NDP’s widening lead in those ridings, the party has moved within 14 votes of the Conservatives in Surrey-Guildford, with the Tories previously leading by 103 votes there before Saturday.
While more updated results are expected later Saturday, the full results will not be made official until two recounts are conducted on Sunday and Monday.
Those will be in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings, where the margin of the NDP’s lead was under 100 votes in both cases.
Week-long cliffhanger
At the end of election night on Oct. 19, British Columbians still did not know who their government was, with the count not to be made official until this weekend.
That’s because Elections B.C. had to count around 65,000 absentee and mail-in ballots that were sent in after the close of advance voting, and were mandated by law to wait until Saturday to begin doing so.
While most ridings’ results this weekend will be counted by electronic tabulators, the recounts in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings will be done manually.
Any district where the margin of victory is 100 votes or less is subject to an automatic recount. Parties can also request a recount in close ridings.
In response to a question from CBC News about whether Surrey-Guildford — where the margin of the Conservatives’ lead has shrunk to under 100 votes — would also see a recount, Elections B.C. said they will know the answer on Monday.
“Once final count is complete on [Oct.] 28 we will be able to confirm if a district will go to an automatic judicial recount,” spokesperson Andrew Watson said in an email.
“If the difference between the top two candidates following the conclusion of final count is less than 1/500th of the total ballots considered, there will be an automatic judicial recount in that district.”