Update Oct. 28:
Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht officially conceded on Monday.
"Congratulations to the NDP candidate," he told the Morning Star. "We will probably have another election in a year or a year and a half, so I am excited about that."
Giesbrecht was happy with how his campaign went and said that his team of volunteers is ready and excited to continue whenever the next election is.
"Politics is in my blood, so it is hard to get away."
Harwinder Sandhu of the BC NDP has officially taken the Vernon-Lumby riding.
Mail-in ballots in the provincial election began being counted Saturday, Oct. 26, one week after election day.
Elections B.C. provided an update on vote totals for 30 ridings, including Vernon-Lumby, where a two-horse race unfolded between the BC NDP and the Conservative Party of B.C. following election night on Oct. 19.
With the update, Sandhu now has 11,836 votes (42.69 per cent). Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht has 11,359 votes (40.97 per cent).
That gives Sandhu a 477-vote lead in the riding, an increase from the 384-vote lead she held before tabulation of mail-in votes. It also puts the Conservatives out of reach.
Independent candidate Kevin Acton has 4,266 votes (15.39 per cent) following the update, and Libertarian candidate Robert Johnson has 265 (0.96 per cent).
The final count officially concluded on Monday with 27,726 valid votes.
Original:
Elections B.C. has begun counting more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee ballots from across the 93 ridings in the province, with the potential for several close ridings to be flipped, which could decide the outcome of last week's extremely tight provincial election.
The counting of these mail-in and absentee ballots began today and is expected to wrap up by late Sunday. Meanwhile, Elections BC is conducting full recounts beginning Sunday in two very close ridings 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” where the margin of victory in the initial tally was less than 100 votes. A partial hand recount will also take place in Kelowna Centre due to a transcription error of one vote.
Preliminary results in Vernon-Lumby have NDP incumbent candidate Harwinder Sandhu with 11,528 votes, which puts her ahead of Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht by a margin of 384 votes.
According to Elections B.C., in Vernon-Lumby there are 464 mail-in ballots and 138 absentee ballots left to count, for a total of 602 votes.
That means the race is not over, although Giesbrecht will have to win the large majority of those 602 votes to flip the riding in favour of the Conservatives.
Sandhu came short of declaring victory on election night Saturday, Oct. 19, but did so via on Thursday. Giesbrecht told The Morning Star on election night that the results were too close to call and he would wait until the results of the final count were in before conceding.
Provincially, neither the BC NDP not the Conservative Party of B.C. have earned the 47 seats needed to form a majority government. Preliminary results show that the NDP has won or is leading in 46 ridings; the BC Conservatives currently control 45 seats; and the BC Greens have secured two seats.
It won't be until Monday, when the final count officially concludes, before the makeup of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria will be finalized.
- With files from The Canadian Press
