NDP candidate Gary Holman’s lead shrunk to only 47 votes after a recount of provincial election ballots in Saanich North and the Islands on Monday.
Holman had been leading Liberal Stephen P. Roberts by 52 votes, according to preliminary figures from election night on May 14. After an Elections B.C. recount Monday afternoon, Holman’s lead dropped by five ballots.
“We narrowed the gap ever so slightly,” said Roberts. “We’re feeling very positive.”
Roberts said most of the recounted ballots were clean, and only a few ballots for each candidate were disqualified.
The riding now moves into the final vote process, in which Elections B.C. counts absentee and special ballots that did not form part of the total on election night.
Those additional ballots include votes cast outside the electoral district, at advanced polls outside the district, from the district electoral office, mail-in ballots and special ballots from hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Roberts said there are as many as 2,500 special and absentee ballots to count, meaning the riding’s slim margins could easily shift.
B.C. Green candidate Adam Olsen sat in third place, 382 votes behind Holman, after Monday’s recount. He admitted he’d have to pull “a pretty significant chunk” out of the special and absentee ballots on Tuesday to emerge victorious.
“I’ve got to get a lot more than my competitors to win,” said Olsen. “ I remain hopeful ... but realistic.”
Elsewhere in B.C., only one riding saw its results changed by the final vote process Monday.
NDP candidate Selina Mae Robinson squeaked ahead of Liberal Steve Kim by five votes in Coquitlam-Maillardville. However, the final vote process is not yet complete in that riding and counting will resume today.
No ridings on Vancouver Island changed as a result of the final vote process.
The NDP holds 11 of the Island’s 14 ridings, with the Liberals in control of the Comox Valley and Parksville-Qualicum, and the Greens in Oak Bay-Gordon-Head.
Elections B.C. continues to update the results on its website at: elections.bc.ca
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The number of seats held by each party has been corrected in this story.
