Vernon Monashee elects NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu

Harwinder Sandhu is now officially the NDP MLA for the Vernon-Monashee riding.

Campaign Manager Tracie Mundy said Sandhu ended up beating incumbent MLA Eric Foster by 424 votes in what was one of the tightest races of the province.

Foster had a 183-vote lead once all the ballot boxes were counted on Election Day, but 8,581 ballots in Vernon-Monashee needed to be counted.

The Vernon-Monashee riding hasn't elected an NDP candidate since 1984, and Foster has represented the area since 2009.

While the NDP picked up support around the province, the rest of Kamloops and Okanagan ridings maintained the Liberal dominance, many again winning with more than 50 per cent of the vote. Foster being elected wasn't expected to be in doubt.

In the riding, BC Greens candidate Keli Westgate came in third with 4,464 votes, and BC Conservative candidate Kyle Delfing placed fourth with 3,472 votes.

Elections BC began counting 660,000 mail-in and absentee ballots on Friday, 13 days after the Oct. 24 provincial election.

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