Leads holding steady as final vote tallies begin
British Columbia’s final ballot count started Monday to determine which party forms the province’s next government, barring judicial recounts, almost two weeks after election day.
Christy Clark’s Liberals held a slight lead heading into the final count, needing only one riding to change in their favour for the slimmest of majority governments in the province’s 87-seat legislature. But the prospect of a minority government also looms large.
After the May 9 vote, the Liberals had 43 seats, New Democrats 41 and the Greens three.
All eyes over the next few days will be on the Courtenay-Comox riding on Vancouver Island, where the NDP won by nine votes. The riding is the focus of an official recount as is Vancouver-False Creek, won by incumbent Liberal Sam Sullivan by more than 400 votes.
After the judicial recount on Monday, the NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard increased her lead in Courtenay-Comox to 13 votes over Liberal Jim Benninger, while Sullivan was ahead by 569 votes in Vancouver-False Creek. The results do not include absentee ballots, which will be counted over the next couple of days.
Two other ridings that could be in play pending absentee ballots are Richmond-Queensborough and Maple Ridge-Mission, where the winning margins were within a couple hundred votes. Liberal Jas Johal leads New Democrat Am an Singh by 116 votes in Richmond-Queens borough while New Democrat Bob D’Eith leads Liberal Marc Dalton by 166 votes in Maple Ridge-Mission.
Once the results are known, political horse trading between the Liberals, NDP and Greens is expected to intensify as the parties manoeuvre toward co-operation agreements in what could be a minority government or a bare majority.
Elections B.C., the government agency that administers provincial elections, said almost 180,000 absentee ballots must be counted.
The final count will take place from Monday to Wednesday.