Polls have closed across New Brunswick and election workers have begun the tedious work of counting thousands of ballots to determine which party will form the next government.
Slightly more than half a million people were eligible to vote in 55 ridings across the province, and more than 50,000 voted in advance polls.
Elections New Brunswick's Paul Harpelle says approximately 9,000 poll workers ensured the ballots were processed properly.
"The fun part begins at 8 p.m. [AT] when the polls close; that's when the counting begin," he said. "The people involved with advance polls will come back, they'll count those ballots. [The] people who did today's polls will count their ballots."
The vote comes 3½ years into Conservative Leader Bernard Lord's second mandate.
Lord had wanted to wait until 2007 for an election, but his Tory government has been teetering on the edge of collapse for months, hanging onto power with a slim, one-seat majority.
That majority was set to vanish this fall, when Tantramar MLA Peter Mesheau took a job in the private sector and announced plans to resign his seat, forcing Lord to either take a chance with a byelection or call a provincial election.
His choice is just fine with Liberal Leader Shawn Graham and his team, who have been keen to fight a campaign for the last several months.
The NDP hasn't held a seat in the legislature since former leader Elizabeth Weir resigned last year. Her replacement, Allison Brewer, is working to win her home riding in Fredericton, but failed to attract a full slate of candidates for the 2006 vote.
At dissolution, the house standings were 28 Progressive Conservatives including the Speaker, 26 Liberals and one Independent.
| Party | Elected | Leading | Total | Vote Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIB | 29 | 0 | 29 | 47.10% |
| PC | 26 | 0 | 26 | 47.50% |
| NDP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.10% |
| OTH | 0 | 0 | 0 | .20% |
| Last Update:September 19, 1:13:13 AM ADT | ||||