B.C. election: NDP cuts margin in key riding to 4 votes as absentee count goes on

An ongoing count of absentee ballots in British Columbia's election has seen the NDP cut the B.C. Conservatives' lead in a key riding to just four votes.

An ongoing count of absentee ballots in British Columbia's election has seen the NDP cut the B.C. Conservatives' lead in a key riding to just four votes.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and holds onto other leads, it will be elected or leading in 47 seats, which is the threshold for a majority in the legislature.

Monday's count of more than 22,000 absentee and special ballots provincewide could finally produce a winner in the election, nine days after the Oct. 19 vote.

Recounts and a tally of mail-in votes failed to settle the contest on the weekend, with neither Premier David Eby's New Democrats nor John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives emerging on Sunday with a majority.

But the mail-in count increased the prospects for an NDP government when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut sharply.

All eyes have been on that Metro Vancouver seat since counting resumed at 9 a.m., with 226 absentee votes to count, and results are being updated hourly on the Elections BC website.

In the first two hours of counting, the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was cut from 12 to 4 votes.