VANCOUVER — The B.C. New Democrats have a majority government of 47 seats after a recount in the riding of Surrey-Guildford concluded with the party’s candidate 22 votes ahead of his provincial Conservative rival.
No majority could be declared after the initial count for the Oct. 19 election.
Garry Begg of the NDP went into the full recount on Thursday with a 27-vote lead. B.C.’s chief electoral officer had said on Tuesday there were 28 unreported votes and those had reduced the margin to 21.
The recount, done by hand, was overseen by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kevin Loo. It ended Friday with Begg at 8,947 votes and the B.C. Conservatives’ Honveer Singh Randhawa with 8,925.
A separate partial recount in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally 861 votes from an uncounted ballot box was also completed Friday, confirming B.C. Conservative Kiel Giddens’ victory by 6,068 votes. The tally was 11,310 for Giddens and 5,242 for the NDP’s Shar McCrory.
The final recount in Kelowna Centre was the last to be reported, and confirmed that B.C. Conservative Kristina Loewen was elected by 40 votes over the New Democrat. Loewen received 11,033 votes to 10,993 for the NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge.
The Election Act says any application to appeal results after a judicial recount must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Andrew Watson with Elections B.C. said that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
The recount results confirm that the NDP have 47 seats, the Conservatives 44, the Greens two.
Premier David Eby has said his new cabinet will be sworn in on Nov. 18.
The 44 members of the Opposition caucus and two members from the B.C. Greens are expected to be sworn in on Nov. 12, while the New Democrat members of the legislature will be sworn in the next day.
A count of absentee and mail-in ballots completed nine days after the Oct. 19 election gave Eby’s party the barest majority in the 93-seat legislature, pending the recounts.
On the day after that count, Eby said he heard the message from voters in the very tight election and promised to do better “on issues, including public safety and affordability.”
He said he recognized that his government needed to work with the Conservatives and the Greens on different initiatives “to make sure we’re responding to the message.”
While judicial recounts aren’t uncommon in B.C. elections, result changes because of them are rare, with only one race overturned in the province in at least the past 20 years.
That was when Independent Vicki Huntington went from trailing by two votes in Delta South to winning by 32 in a 2009 judicial recount.
