Political newcomer Amna Shah is now MLA-elect in Surrey City Centre, where the NDP candidate won by a narrow margin following an Elections BC-ordered automatic recount of ballots over the weekend.
Monday's final tally gave Shah 6,727 votes, 236 more than Conservative opponent Zeeshan Wahla in a riding where 14,403 ballots were cast.
The initial count had Shah with 6,439 votes to Wahla's 6,344, totals that were under the 100-vote threshold for an automatic recount involving the two first-time election candidates.
The riding, formerly Surrey-Whalley, had long been held by the NDP's Bruce Ralston, who in July announced he wouldn't seek re-election after a 19-year political career in Victoria.
Shah campaigned to keep the seat for the NDP in a five-candidate race with Wahla, Colin Boyd (who won 878 votes as B.C. Green Party candidate), Ryan Abbott (147 votes, Communist Party of B.C.) and Saeed Naguib (160 votes, Independent).
Shah, who has worked on projects involving affordable housing and Surrey Food Bank, has not yet responded to Now-Leader requests for an interview, post-election.
Wahla, a father of four who runs an engineering consulting business, said he accepts the results in a riding long dominated by the NDP.
"Someone has to win and someone has to lose, that's life, and I'm on the losing side, but I feel I won – I won thousands of people who gave me their vote, their support," Wahla said Tuesday. "The NDP has won (in the riding), and this time it's only 236 votes. I'm happy with my campaign, my volunteers, donors, everybody who helped."
The first-time Conservative candidate doesn't rule out a return to politics in the future.
"It's been nine months of working really hard, and people want me to keep working hard. It's too early to say right now, I have to spend some time with my family now."
