Update 11:45 p.m.
B.C. Conservative Kristina Loewen is claiming a win in the Kelowna-Centre riding.
Loewen, who has been less than forthcoming with media and community forums during the campaign, garnered 10,739 votes over B.C. NDP candidate Loyal Wooldridge at 10,592, in a closely fought election.
Loewen spent the evening with supporters at Mid-Town Station.
A total of 24,918 valid votes were cast in Kelowna-Centre.
Wooldridge held an election night party at Match Eatery where Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas stopped by.
The NDP candidate posted to Instagram to thank his supporters.
"While the final count is still to come in the next few days, as of right now, we aren't currently in the lead," Wooldridge wrote. "I'm incredibly proud of our campaign and the progressive movement we're built together."
Wooldridge also congratulation his opponents for running strong campaigns.
Original 10:45 p.m.
NDP's Loyal Wooldridge and Conservative's Kristina Loewen are neck and neck as the final Kelowna-Centre ballots are being counted.
As ballot boxes were counted starting at 8 p.m., there was never more than a one per cent difference in the votes cast for each, as preliminary results were posted live on Elections BC.
With one ballot box left to count, Loewen sits on top with approximately 10,680 votes. Wooldridge has about 10,520 ballots cast in hist favour, less than 200 votes behind the Conservative candidate.
More than 24,700 votes have been counted in the riding.
This is the first election in the new Kelowna-Centre riding. With 33,265 registered voters (as of Oct. 7), 9,579 people voted in advanced polls.
The riding includes downtown Kelowna from Cadder Ave north to McKinley Road and everything west of Highway 97 to Okanagan Lake. The University of BC Okanagan campus was included in the Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream riding.
The candidates who ran in the new riding included NDP's Loyal Wooldridge, Conservative's Kristina Loewen, Green's Bryce Tippe, and Independent candidate Michael Humer.
There were a total of 3,550,017 people eligible to vote in the 2024 B.C. election.
More to come.
