Recount flips squeaker election night win for NDP in Burnaby South-Metrotown to Conservatives
Conservative David Xie has been elected MLA for the Burnaby South-Metrotown riding with a 64-vote margin over the NDP’s Paul Choi, reversing the initial count that had given Choi 66 votes over Xie, or 0.5 percentage points
Last updated 1 day ago
B.C.’s incoming majority government grew by another seat — to 64 out of a possible 93 — when a Burnaby seat just barely held by the NDP was snatched by the Conservatives after a recount.
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A recount of the NDP’s election night 66-ballot win in Burnaby South-Metrotown flipped the seat to the Tories on Sunday.
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Recount flips squeaker election night win for NDP in Burnaby South-Metrotown to Conservatives Back to video
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Under premier-designate Lorne Doerkson, the Conservatives will control almost 70 per cent of the next legislature.
After the recount and adding mail-in votes during the final vote count, Elections B.C. declared Conservative David Xie the winner in Burnaby South-Metrotown, with 64 more votes than the NDP’s Paul Choi, who had won the seat in 2024.
Choi’s win on election night amounted to a 0.5 per cent margin over Xie. The riding flipped to the Conservatives with an even tighter margin of 0.43 per cent. That was just enough of a margin to stave off an automatic judicial review of the final count, according to an Elections B.C. spokeswoman.
But for two other tight races, where the voting margin between the top two candidates after the final count was less than 0.2 per cent, one in Ladysmith, the other in Kelowna, the district electoral officers are required under the law to request a judicial review, she said. Ladysmith-Oceanside was held on election night by the NDP with just a 13-vote lead.
A partial recount was also held in Kelowna Centre, where during the initial count the Conservatives held a 137-vote lead over the NDP.
The spokeswoman said a request was made to recount the votes at one of the polling stations in the Kelowna riding. That can be requested for a number of reasons, including concerns over how the initial count was carried out, such as questions about the handling of certification envelopes for out-of-riding ballots or voting equipment.
In both those contests, the recount and final count upheld the election night results but both are subject to judicial reviews — after the final count — because the total margin was under 0.2 per cent of the riding’s total eligible votes.
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In Ladysmith-Oceanside, the NDP’s Stephanie Higginson had her voting margin increased to 50 votes in the final count and she held her seat.
In Kelowna Centre, a recount resulted in a narrowing of Conservative Kristina Loewen’s lead over the NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge to 43 votes, but it wasn’t enough to flip the vote, and she, too, held her seat.
But both those margins were under 0.2 per cent of the total of the eligible votes in their ridings.
The final count included mail-in ballots, absentee ballots cast by those who voted in a riding other than the one they were registered to vote in, and votes of those assisted by telephone, Elections B.C. said.
Xie didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
