While many ridings were decided during Saturday night’s election results, some Vancouver Island residents may have to wait for weeks to know for certain who their MLA is.
That delay is due to narrow margins of victory combined with large portions of the electorate voting by mail.
Elections BC said they won’t start releasing mail-in ballot results until at least 13 days after general voting day on October 24.
In the riding of Parksville-Qualicum, incumbent Liberal candidate Michelle Stilwell was narrowly trailing BC NDP candidate Adam Walker at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
With 88 of 116 ballot boxes counted, 33 per cent of the votes were cast for Stilwell, to 37 per cent for Walker.
Roughly 30 per cent of the registered voters in Parksville-Qualicum signed up to vote by mail.
Nanaimo-North Cowichan was also closely fought on Saturday evening, as incumbent Doug Routley was leading with about 42 per cent of the vote over Green candidate Christ Istace, with 36 per cent.
About 21 per cent of the voters in the riding signed up for vote-by-mail packages.
Roughly 30 per cent of registered voters across the province signed up to vote by mail.
