Absentee ballot count could settle B.C.'s election, 9 days after vote

British Columbia's election could finally be decided today with the counting of absentee ballots, after recounts and a tally of mail-in votes failed to settle the contest on the weekend.

British Columbia's election could finally be decided Monday with the counting of absentee ballots, after recounts and a tally of mail-in votes failed to settle the contest on the weekend.

Neither Premier David Eby's New Democrats nor John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives emerged from the weekend with the magic number of 47 seats required to form a majority in the province's 93-seat legislature.

But the counting increased the prospects for an NDP government, when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut to just 12 votes.

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

More than 22,000 absentee ballots provincewide that are to be counted Monday could hold the key to the Oct. 19 election, and Elections BC says it will provide hourly updates of the results.

The current standings have the NDP leading or elected in 46 ridings, with the B.C. Conservatives leading or elected in 45 and the Greens with two elected members.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and hangs onto all other ridings where it leads, it will secure the narrowest of majorities.