Final count for 2020 provincial general election has now been completed

Photo: The Canadian Press

Final voting results for the B.C. provincial election took an extended period of time this year due to the overwhelming number of mail-in ballots.

The final count for the 2020 provincial general election in British Columbia is now complete in every electoral district. 

At the conclusion of final count, 57 members of BC NDP were elected, 28 members of BC Liberal Party and two members of the BC Green Party. 

On Sunday, final electoral results were confirmed for Vernon-Monashee, where BC NDP member Harwinder Sandhu took the win. It was one of the closest races in the province, with only 424 votes between Sandhu and Liberal incumbent Eric Foster. 

In the Kamloops-North riding, Liberal incumbent Peter Milobar will keep his seat, after winning the riding with just a 196-vote margin above NDP challenger Sadie Hunter.

In the Central Okanagan, the BC Liberals easily held onto their seats. In Kelowna-Lake Country, incumbent Norm Letnick grabbed 55.73 per cent of the vote, more than doubling the NDP's Justin Kulik at 27.04%.

Newcomer Renee Merrifield secured 50.76% of the votes in the Kelowna-Mission riding, beating out the NDP's Krystal Smith who had 32.39 per cent, while Ben Stewart received 49.89 per cent in Kelowna West. The NDP's Spring Hawes had 34 per cent. 

Following the conclusion of final count, a candidate is declared elected in each electoral district, and the District Electoral Officer returns the writ of election to the Chief Electoral Officer.

The CEO then reports the candidate elected to the Clerk of the House, officially ending the 42nd Provincial General Election in that district. 

A judicial recount can be requested within six days following the end of final count, and a writ cannot be returned until after this time.

Every electoral district in B.C. will return the writ of election on the week of Nov. 16, with the exception of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, which is subject to an automatic judicial recount due to the closeness of the results. 

Voting results for each electoral district by party and candidate are available on the Elections BC website.