The recount begins Sunday afternoon in two ridings where BC’s New Democrats held a slight lead after the initial tally from last week’s still-undecided election.

Elections BC says recounts in Juan de Fuca-Malahat on Vancouver Island and in downtown Surrey will begin at 1 p.m. and will be posted online once completed.

The recounts were triggered because their margins after last week’s initial tally were less than 100, but the counting of mail-in ballots Saturday widened the NDP’s lead in Juan de Fuca-Malahat to 106 votes and 178 in downtown Surrey.

So far, no lead has changed in the mail-in count that continues Sunday, but prospects for an NDP government have increased, as the party widens its lead in some tight races and narrows the Conservatives’ margins in others.

The province’s closest undecided riding is Surrey-Guildford, where the Conservative lead was reduced to 12 votes on Saturday.

Prime Minister David Eby’s NDP is elected or ahead with 46 seats and John Rustad’s Conservatives with 45 seats, both short of a 47-seat majority, while the Greens could hold the balance of power with two seats .

Chief Clarence Louie, tribal chairman of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, released a statement Sunday calling for the removal of BC Conservative candidate Juan de Fuca-Malahat from the party due to comments about Indigenous people.

On Friday, the Vancouver Sun published a recording in which a person identified as Marina Sapozhnikov refers to First Nations people as “savages.” The newspaper says the comments were made during an election night conversation with a journalism student.

Louie called the reported comments “abhorrent and racist.”

“These ignorant and hateful comments, which constitute a form of hate speech, have no place in our society. We call on British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad to immediately take a clear and strong stance against hatred and racism, by removing it from his mandate. political party,” Louie said.

Rustad issued a statement saying he was “dismayed and deeply saddened” by the comments and that the party was “taking this matter seriously.”

The final makeup of the 93 seats in British Columbia’s legislature won’t be known until at least Monday, when more than 22,000 absentee and special votes will be counted.

Judicial recounts could subsequently take place if the margin in a district is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 27, 2024.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press