(Photo by Brett Gundlock/Getty Images)
It’s still a close race in British Columbia’s election as recounting continues, but the NDP has gained a lead in two ridings that were tight.
In the general election held on Oct. 19, the BC NDP won or was leading in 46 ridings, the BC Conservatives won or were leading in 45 ridings, and the Green Party picked up 2 seats.
As of Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Elections BC said that in the riding of Juan de Fuca-Malahat, NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse was leading over Conservative Marina Sapozhnikov by 106 votes. That is up from 23 in the initial count.
In the Surrey City Centre riding, the NDP candidate, Amna Shah, is ahead of the Conservative candidate, Zeeshan Wahla, by 178 votes. That is up from the 93 votes that Shah had in the initial count.
Conservatives are leading in the Surrey-Guildford riding by just 12 votes for Honveer Singh Randhawa. In the initial count, that margin was 103 votes.
Other close races include Courtenay-Comox, with the Conservatives leading by 116 votes, down from the 234-vote lead in the initial count. The Conservatives are also ahead in Kelowna Centre by 72 votes. In the initial vote, the party led by 148 votes.
In Maple Ridge East riding, the Conservatives have a 163 vote lead over the NDP, down from the 327 lead the party had in the initial count.
Overall, the NDP remains in the lead with 46 seats and 44.64 percent of the votes. The Conservatives are second with 45 seats and 43.53 percent of the votes, while the Greens are still at two seats and 8.19 percent of the votes.
Forty-seven seats are needed to form a majority government.
Elections B.C. has also started counting the more than 43,000 mail-in ballots, saying the count will be completed late Sunday. The counting of the more than 22,000 absentee and special ballots will be completed by Monday.
Chandra Philip is a news reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.