British Columbia election results unclear after 2 days of recount

By Nicole Mordant

A preliminary tally of votes in the May 9 election showed
that the ruling Liberal Party won 43 out of 87 seats. The
left-leaning opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) won 41 seats
and the Green Party had claimed three.

The Liberals and NDP have spent the past two weeks courting
the tiny Green Party, which would hold the balance of
power in the province if the preliminary results are confirmed.

The Greens could push the pro-business Liberals out of power
by forming a majority government with the NDP. Both the NDP and
Greens oppose large oil and gas projects such as Kinder Morgan’s
Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The outcome is likely to be determined by the recount in a
close race in the Courtenay-Comox region on Vancouver Island,
where the initial tally put the NDP ahead of the Liberals by
just nine votes.

A partial count posted on Tuesday evening showed the NDP was
in the lead with 10,481 votes, compared to 10,380 for the
Liberals. The provincial elections office said on Twitter that
it would post its next update on Wednesday morning.

The final results included nearly 180,000 absentee ballots
cast across the province that were not counted in the initial
tally.
(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Jim
Finkle in Toronto; Editing by Michael Perry)


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