Signs for the Nanaimo byelection candidates.
Advanced voting is done for the upcoming Nanaimo byelection and more than 20 per cent of eligible voters have cast their vote.
Elections BC said 9,322 of 45,359 eligible voters cast their ballots at the advance polling stations between Jan. 22 and Jan. 27, 2019.
The byelection was called to replace Leonard Krog. The five-term NDP member of the legislature resigned his seat last year after being elected mayor of Nanaimo.
There are six candidates in the race: former New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson, the Green’s Michele Ney, Liberal Tony Harris, Conservative Justin Greenwood, Robin Richardson of the Vancouver Island Party and Libertarian Bill Walker.
Nanaimo has been a New Democrat stronghold, but a Liberal win would give the party 43 seats, tying it with the 43 seats held by the NDP and the Green party, which signed an agreement in 2017 allowing the New Democrats to form a minority government. Speaker Darryl Plecas sits as an independent. He was kicked out of the B.C. Liberal Party after he accepted the position.
General voting day for the Nanaimo byelection is Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. You can watch CHEK News’ special coverage of the byelection from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by our regular newscast at 10 p.m.
With files from The Canadian Press
CHEK News
