The final counting of ballots for British Columbia’s 2024 election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and mail-in votes potentially still to be counted across the province’s 93 electoral districts.

Elections BC says even more ballots could still be added to the outstanding total because some precincts have certification envelopes that they are still reviewing to determine if the ballots contained within are valid.

Adding those 66,000 votes could potentially change the results of a very close election, which saw the initial count end last weekend with the BC NDP leading in 46 ridings, the Conservative Party of British Columbia leading in 45 and the British Columbia Conservative Party leading in 45 ridings. The Greens lead in two.

Five precincts finished the initial count with the top two candidates within a percentage point of each other.

The closest race was in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse trailed conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov by just 23 votes in the initial count.

Elections BC data released Friday shows at least 681 mail-in and mail-in ballots remain in that riding, which is also subject to a mandatory recount because it finished with the top two candidates separated by less than 100 votes on election night.

The downtown Surrey riding, where NDP candidate Amna Shah led by 93 votes over the Conservatives’ Zeeshan Wahla in the initial count, is also subject to a mandatory recount.

There are at least 476 ballots to be counted in downtown Surrey during the final count, according to Elections BC.

The other three constituencies where the leading candidate’s margin is less than 1 percent of the votes cast in the constituency are:

• 
  Courtenay-Comox: Conservative Brennan Day leads NDP incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard by 234 votes; there are at least 995 ballots left to count
• 
  Kelowna Centre: Conservative Kristina Loewen leads New Democrat Loyal Wooldridge by 148 votes; there are at least 818 ballots left to count
• 
  Surrey-Guildford: Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa leads NDP incumbent Garry Begg by 103 votes; there are at least 634 ballots left to count

Forty-seven seats are required for a majority, so a gain of one seat for the NDP or two seats for the Conservatives in the final count could give that party the ability to form a government without help from MPs. another party.

If the riding count remains unchanged, the Greens will hold the balance of power in a minority legislature, with either NDP Leader David Eby or Conservative Leader John Rustad needing the support of Green MPs to become prime minister.

Data published by Elections BC As of Friday afternoon, there were a total of 66,074 “certification envelopes” accepted for the final count.

The counting process will involve opening the envelopes and separating the ballots they contain from the envelopes themselves and their security pouches.

Any envelopes containing no ballots or multiple ballots will be set aside and will not be counted, Elections BC said.

Elections BC said earlier this week that it planned to share partial results of its final tally at 1 p.m. and again at 4 p.m. Saturday, and again at those times Sunday.

CTV News will update this article with the latest results as they come in over the weekend.