B.C. NDP wins Juan de Fuca-Malahat after recount

B.C. NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse was still leading in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding following a B.C. election recount on Monday, Oc. 28, 2024. (Facebook/Dana Lajeunesse)

After a recount and a tally of mail-in and absentee ballots, the B.C. NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse was elected in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding.

The final results in the Vancouver Island riding show Lajeunesse defeating B.C. Conservative contender Marina Sapozhnikov by 141 votes.

The NDP candidate led the Conservative candidate by just 23 votes after the initial election night count on Oct. 19. He pulled further ahead after mail-in and assisted telephone ballots were tallied over the weekend, prior to the start of the recount and the final count Monday.

A resident of Sooke, Lajeunesse was elected as a councillor in the district in 2019 and was re-elected in 2022.

The margin of victory was not slim enough to trigger an automatic judicial recount – as it did in two other races.

In the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding, where an estimated 23,875 ballots were cast, the threshold would have been about 48 votes or less.