VICTORIA — British Columbia’s election could finally be decided Monday with the counting of mail-in ballots, after the recount and counting of mail-in votes failed to settle the weekend race.

Neither Premier David Eby’s New Democrats nor John Rustad’s Conservatives in British Columbia came out of the weekend with the magic number of 47 seats required to form a majority in the 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly of the province.

But the recount increased the chances of an NDP government, when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was reduced to just 12 votes.

All eyes will be on this Metro Vancouver seat when counting resumes at 9 a.m., with 226 absentee votes to be counted.

More than 22,000 mail-in ballots across the province due to be counted Monday could be key to the Oct. 19 election, and Elections BC says it will provide hourly updates of the results.

Currently, the NDP is leading or elected in 46 ridings, the BC Conservatives are leading or elected in 45, and the Greens are with two MPs elected.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and keeps all the other ridings where it leads, it will get the narrowest majority.

Elections BC says there was no change in party rankings after the counting of absentee and assisted telephone ballots concluded on Sunday.

A full recount in downtown Surrey reduced the NDP lead by three votes, to 175, while a partial recount in downtown Kelowna saw the Conservative lead reduced by four votes, to 68.

The result of a full recount in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP leads by 113 votes, is also expected to be announced Monday.

Even if the makeup of the Legislature could become clear, judicial recounts could still take place afterward if the margin in a district is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.

For example, in the tightest Surrey-Guildford race, where about 19,306 votes were cast, the margin for a judicial recount is about 38 votes or less.

Aisha Estey, president of the British Columbia Conservative Party, said she spent the weekend in a warehouse monitoring the counting of mail-in ballots.

In a social media post, she said: “Elections BC staff have worked tirelessly and done their best within the legislation that governs their work. »

“Would we have liked mail-ins to be counted closer to (election day)? Of course,” she added. “But I haven’t seen anything that worries me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 28, 2024.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press