Elections BC says no deliberate violations in 2024 Surrey-Guildford vote

VICTORIA — Elections BC says it has found no evidence of deliberate violations in a Metro Vancouver riding that helped give the NDP government a one-seat majority after the 2024 provincial vote.

The agency says it is confident that “free, fair, and secure” voting took place in Surrey-Guildford, and its investigation triggered by a complaint from the defeated B.C. Conservative candidate has now ended.

It says all processes, including voting by mail, were in accordance with B.C.’s Election Act, ensuring eligible voters “were able to exercise their constitutional right to vote.”

New Democrat Garry Begg won by 22 votes over B.C. Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa.

Randhawa had also petitioned the B.C. Supreme Court to challenge the results, contending that voting involved non-residents, people casting multiple ballots and care home residents voting by mail despite not knowing there was an election.

That challenge was eventually withdrawn by Randhawa, who said it had achieved a material outcome when Elections BC said “a few administrative errors” occurred in the provincial vote.

But Elections BC said at the time that none of the errors affected the outcome.

“The evidence available was sufficient to assess the allegations and determine there was no deliberate attempt to influence the election outcome through non-compliance with the Election Act,” the agency’s investigation summary issued Friday says.

“In some cases, the evidence did not support the allegations, and no further action was taken. In other cases, the evidence suggested there may have been incidents of non-compliance, but the evidence did not meet the standard to refer to prosecution or the non-compliance was procedural in nature.”

The people involved in the non-compliance cases have been issued a letter explaining the requirement for eligible voters to cast their ballots.

“While we do not typically release details of our investigations, given the significant public interest in (Surrey-Guildford) and the false narratives that have circulated regarding this issue, we determined it was in the public interest to release a summary of the investigation.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press