Two tight races in Surrey will now come down to mail-in ballots being counted Monday (Oct. 28), as Elections BC’s final tally progresses in the too-close-to-call provincial election in British Columbia.

In Surrey-City Centre, New Democrat Amna Shah appears to be on track to win Surrey-City Center for the NDP, with a 178-vote lead and only 175 mail-in ballots at stake, but the riding will be recounted from from 1 p.m. tomorrow. . Meanwhile, in Surrey-Guildford, NDP incumbent Garry Begg moved within 12 votes of Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa after postal votes were counted on Saturday (Oct. 26).

As of the 4 p.m. update, Shah held 6,619 votes to conservative Zeeshan Wahla’s 6,441, widening his lead from the 93-vote split before the final counting weekend. Begg, meanwhile, had climbed to 8,809 votes, compared to Randhawa’s 8,821, closing the initial gap of 103 votes.

Elections BC has confirmed that all mall ballots for Surrey-City Center and Surrey-Guildford were counted on Saturday, October 26. The remaining postal ballots in Surrey’s eight remaining constituencies will be counted tomorrow.

Votes counted today include absentee ballots, but not mail-in ballots. Elections BC reported that there are 226 mail-in ballots left to count in Surrey-Guildford and 175 in Surrey-City Centre, meaning no final verdict will be made today. Those ballots are expected to be counted Monday, along with mail-in ballots from all B.C. electoral districts.

Elections BC’s next update is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 27). More to come at that time.

With the provincial race featuring 46 NDP MPs, 45 Conservatives and two Greens, this weekend’s final tally will determine whether one party secured the 47 seats needed to form a majority government, or whether a coalition or deal with the Greens will be needed for one or the other. David Eby of the NDP or John Rustad of the Conservatives will become the next prime ministers.

Yesterday (Friday, October 25), Elections BC announced the number of certification envelopes it would open as part of the final count, including absentee and assisted telephone votes, as well as special and absentee ballots . These ballots total 66,074 across British Columbia’s 93 electoral districts.

Surrey-City Center will also be subject to a recount, scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday, October 27) at 1 p.m., since the initial margin of victory was less than 100 votes. Elections BC spokesperson Wesley MacInnis confirmed the recount, as well as the planned one in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, will go ahead as planned.

The recount includes all ballots for the precinct that were counted on election night as well as ballots cast by voters on Election Day in other precincts. All ballots will be counted manually.

Begg had requested a recount in Surrey-Guildford before the weekend, but Elections BC rejected the request. Whether a recount is now imminent will depend on the results of the final count.

MacInnis noted that once the final count is completed on Oct. 28, Elections BC will be able to confirm whether a riding will undergo an automatic judicial recount. If the difference between the first two candidates at the end of the final count is less than 1/500th of the total ballots considered, there will be an automatic judicial recount in that district.

Right now in Surrey-Guildford, that would mean a margin of difference of about 37 votes or less, depending on the final number of ballots.

In two other Surrey constituencies, both won by the Conservatives, the number of votes remaining to be counted this weekend was greater than the leading candidate’s margin of victory – but, in both cases, a change is now unlikely given the difference in votes.

One of them is Surrey-Panorama, where Conservative Bryan Tepper currently holds a 293-vote lead over NDP incumbent Jinny Sims. In this constituency, 196 absentee ballots and an unspecified number of absentee ballots remain to be counted. The other is Surrey-Serpentine River, where Conservative Linda Hepner won 483 votes over the NDP’s Baltej Singh Dhillon, with 210 absentee votes (and some possible mail-in ballots) remaining to be counted.

In Surrey-Cloverdale, the 4 p.m. update shows Conservative Elenore Sturko holding a 622-vote lead over the NDP’s Mike Starchuk, a slight drop from the previously reported 676-vote lead. This count also continues to increase.

In Surrey’s five remaining constituencies, the final tally will have no impact on the outcome, since the number of votes remaining to be counted is less than the margin of victory, even though some postal ballots and all ballots by mail must still be declared. These are :

• Surrey South: Conservative Brian Chapman up 3,846 votes, with 200 postal ballots and 504 postal ballots remaining to be reported
• Surrey North: Conservative Mandeep Dhaliwal up 1,191 votes, with 187 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted
• Surrey-White Rock: Conservative Trevor Halford up 1,098 votes, with 884 remaining to report (656 by mail, 228 absent)
• Surrey-Newton: NDP Jessie Sunner up 1,207 votes, with 160 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted
• Surrey-Fleetwood: NDP Jagrup Brar up 677 votes, with 209 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted

(Elections BC notes that the number of mail-in and mail-in ballots counted may still vary slightly, as each certification envelope must be reviewed and verified. Certification envelopes that contain no ballots or more than one ballot marked votes will not be counted.)

The final count will end on October 28, when mail-in ballots are expected to be counted.