The final vote count announced by Elections BC on Monday evening (Oct. 28) shows the BC NDP led by Premier David Eby has 47 seats, enough for a majority government. The BC Conservative Party led by John Rustad has 44 seats, while the BC Greens led by leader Sonia Furstenau have two, according to the final vote tally released by Elections BC just before 7 p.m.

Premier David Eby said in a statement released Monday afternoon before the final vote count was announced that Lt. Gov. Janet Austin had asked him to form the next government. Eby, who planned a media appearance Tuesday morning, promised to take the close election result to heart.

“People want their elected representatives to get results,” he said. “A majority of British Columbia voters elected a legislature that shares common values, such as addressing affordability, fighting climate change, ensuring health care is available when you need it and building an inclusive province with safe communities where everyone has their place,” he added.

The statement also acknowledges what Elections BC later confirmed in announcing the final vote count. Two ridings – Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna Center – are heading toward automatic recounts. They must take place if the gap between the first two candidates is less than 1/500th of the total votes considered. This fact ultimately means that the final seat count of what many consider to be the closest election in British Columbia history remains up in the air more than a week after the Oct. 19 election.

Around 7:30 p.m., Rustad issued a statement acknowledging that his party no longer had a path to victory, but also reaffirming the integrity of the election. “I accept the results of this election. I thank our Elections BC workers for their hard and dedicated work,” he said. “While there are still judicial recounts to complete, it is now clear that our party will not win enough seats to form a government in British Columbia,” he added.

Rustad, who planned a media appearance at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, paired the recognition with a promise that his caucus would hold the new government “accountable” while “advocating for policies that reflect the best interests of all British Columbians.” .

Rustad also highlighted the historic success of his party. “We made history in British Columbia,” he said. “Just 18 months ago the BC Conservative Party was at (2 per cent) in the polls, they had no members, no money, no team.”

It will enter the provincial legislature with 44 seats, almost all new MPs.

In Surrey-Guildford, British Columbia, NDP candidate Garry Begg started the day 12 votes behind his Conservative opponent Honveer Singh Randhawa, but ended the day 27 votes ahead after all were counted. outstanding ballots. This change flipped the seat from the Conservatives to the BC NDP and gave the party a simple majority in the 93 seats in the legislature. But Begg’s margin is below the 38-vote threshold for a judicial recount. Honveer Singh Randhawa was leading in the seat with 103 votes after the initial count on October 19.

In Kelowna Centre, Conservative candidate Kristina Loewen saw her 148-vote lead over BC NDP Loyal Wooldridge shrink to 38 votes, with the recount margin at 49 votes.

So, depending on the outcome of each recount, the BC NDP could end up with between 46 seats and a minority government, and 48 seats and a majority.

A judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia will conduct any recount following a formal and mandatory request from the electoral officer of the electoral district concerned. Interested parties will be notified of the location and date of a recount within 72 hours of such formal request and the recount must occur within seven to 15 days of the declaration of official results. Any judicial recount itself could take between one and two days.

This timing is important because it will help shape Eby’s decision to recall the legislature.

Eby’s statement gave no indication of when he would appear before Parliament, but promised to get to work immediately on the current challenges.

Two ridings — Surrey-Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat — were also subject to an automatic recount. These respective recounts included all precinct ballots counted on election night, as well as ballots cast by October 19 voters in other precincts. All ballots were counted manually. The BC NDP was ahead in every riding on election day – by 103 and 23 votes respectively – and was able to extend its lead. In Surrey Central, the BC NDP finished with a 236-vote lead. In Juan de Fuca-Malahat, the BC NDP finished with a 141-vote lead.

Stewart Prest, a political scientist at UBC, said the results offer a “kind of resolution” that would allow the BC NDP to put in place “interim plans” for how it would govern. But Prest also points out that the results could still change and that the BC NDP will still have difficulty governing without “some sort of additional help.”

The choice of the speaker of Parliament is of particular interest, Prest said. If the BC NDP chose a speaker from within its own ranks, the legislature would revert to a minority situation.

Even if the speaker can break a tie on confidence votes, “it’s not easy to govern,” he said. “So I suspect that whatever happens in this recount in the next few hours, we are going to see some form of cooperation, whether implicit and informal or explicit and agreed upon, between the NDP and the Greens.”

Furstenau said in a statement released before the final tally was released that “(pending) a judicial recount, it appears that lawmakers from different parties will need to work together to make the Legislature function effectively.”

Furstenau said the results show British Columbians are demanding “better results” from their government. “(Our) goal is to ensure efficient services and a better quality of life for people,” she said. “Government works best when MPs collaborate and prioritize their constituents over party interests to achieve these results.

Before Surrey-Guildford, the Greens appeared to hold the balance of power, with the BC NDP falling a majority seat short. So, what impact does this change have on the influence of the Greens?

“The influence of the Greens is already somewhat limited,” Perst said.

“Leader Sonia Furstenau has indicated that she prefers to work with the NDP. So the question arises under what conditions this arrangement would work. It therefore appears that (Eby) and (Furstenau) have an effective working relationship”, Thus , they can find some sort of common ground that serves both of their perceived interests. So it may be a question of influence, but it may not even be a conversation about negotiation, but rather about problem solving.