Recount ordered for Dosanjh's Vancouver South riding
Last Updated: Thursday, October 16, 2008 | 5:43 PM PT
CBC News
Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh was elected to Parliament in both the 2004 and 2006 elections. He fought a nail-biter of a race on Tuesday. (CBC) Elections Canada has ordered a judicial recount of votes in the riding of Vancouver South, where incumbent Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh won a close race on Tuesday's federal election.
When electoral officials validated the results on Wednesday, the difference between the two leading candidates was officially 33 votes, less than one one-thousandth of the 42,076 ballots cast, an Elections Canada news release said Thursday.
Under the Canada Elections Act, a judicial recount is automatically required for such a narrow difference in vote totals, Elections Canada said.
As results came in on election night, Dosanjh trailed Conservative candidate Wai Young through the evening, but he overtook her at the end. Those initial, unofficial results showed the former B.C. premier taking 16,774 votes to Young's 15,995 after all 184 polls had reported.
But Wednesday's validated results give Dosanjh 16,101 ballots to Young's 16,068. Elections Canada did not explain the change.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge will conduct the recount, and the results will be revealed to the public after it is completed.
Judicial recounts do not deal with any issue other than how a ballot should be counted and the totals, according to Elections Canada's website.
Concerns about fraud and irregularities in the electoral process must be addressed through a contested election application.
Dosanjh was elected as a Liberal in both the 2004 and 2006 national campaigns. Before turning to federal politics, he was a provincial New Democrat and B.C. premier.
