Two Calgary ridings subject to automatic recounts: Elections Alberta

Two Calgary ridings will undergo a mandatory recount of votes following Monday night's provincial election.

Calgary-Acadia and Calgary-Glenmore, both previously operated by the United Conservative Party are now painted in NDP orange by razor-thin margins.

Former health and justice minister Tyler Shandro received seven fewer votes than competitor Diana Batten, a nurse, for Calgary-Acadia.

The UCP's Whitney Issik lost her seat by 30 votes in Calgary-Glenmore to the NDP's Nagwan Al-Guneid.

According to the Elections Alberta website, "If the difference between the votes for the candidate with the highest number of votes and the candidate with the next highest number of votes is 100 or less, the returning officer shall conduct a full official count."

A candidate may appeal any decision of the chief electoral officer or the returning officer concerning a ballot.

"We do have a number of ridings that were close, but just not that close," said Robyn Bell, spokesperson for Elections Alberta.

"So those ballots are still going to be reviewed, just not on an individual basis automatically in the next 10 days."

Elections Alberta says the official results of the election will be known on June 8.

"There's an eight-day period where candidates can make an application to the Court of King's Bench for a judicial recount. So that's where we may see some recounts happening in those ridings that were close, but not 100 (votes) or less," Bell said.

In Calgary-Northwest, the UCP's Rajan Sawhney defeated her NDP counterpart by 149 votes.

"I feel very humbled. I'm not taking anything for granted," she said following the results Monday night.

"We won the seat not by a huge margin, so we've got some work to do and I'm committed to doing that."

In Banff-Kananaskis, the UCP's Miranda Rosin was defeated by 199 votes, with the NDP's Sarah Elmeligi securing that riding.

"I'm not going to pretend like I don't have work to do in the eastern part of the riding," Elmeligi said.

"I think there's a lot of people in Bragg Creek, in Springbank and Millarville and Priddis who maybe don't resonate, particularly with our party and our platform, but I really look forward to getting to know them and trying to work together to create better solutions for our riding."

In Calgary-Edgemont, the UCP's Prasad Panda lost out to the NDP's Julia Hayter by 283 votes.

Calgary-Foothills saw the NDP's Court Ellingson defeat incumbent Jason Luan by 269 votes.

Calgary-North was even closer with only 113 votes separating the UCP's Muhammad Yaseen from NDP runner-up Rajesh Angral.

Mount Royal University political science professor Lori Williams says recounts often confirm election night results but she expects Rosin to look at the possibility of one.

"In all of the recounts I've seen, it's just changed the margin," Williams said.

"Not to say that it couldn't go the other way, especially when we're talking about seven votes. That's pretty close."

CTV News contacted both the UCP and NDP for comment on whether either party or candidates in the close-call ridings plan to seek a recount, but did not receive a response.