Doug McCallum is not conceding the Surrey election, according to his party

Doug McCallum is not conceding the municipal election to Surrey mayor-elect Brenda Locke, the Safe Surrey Coalition announced Monday in a statement.

The party says there is less than a 1,000-vote difference difference between McCallum and Locke and its legal advisers are exploring grounds for a judicial recount under Section 148 of the Local Elections Act.

"The act outlines rules for requesting a judicial recount through the B.C. Supreme Court," Safe Surrey said in the statement. 

According to the act, an application for a judicial recount can be made on the basis that votes were not correctly accepted or rejected, that a ballot count did not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate or that they weren't calculated correctly in the official election results.

Unofficial results from the City of Surrey show Locke clinched victory in Saturday's municipal vote with 973 votes more than McCallum.

Recount chances slim, says political scientist

Locke was a former member of the Safe Surrey Coalition before leaving in 2019. She focused much of her campaign on undoing McCallum's decision to sever ties with the RCMP and establish a municipal police force.

Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Quest University in Squamish, B.C, said he thinks the chances that a recount would be granted are slim. The margin of Locke's victory is small, he says, but not small enough to put the result in doubt. And there are no obvious instances of irregularities.

"It's not out of the realm of possibility that a recount would be granted, but it's by no means assured and given the size of that gap it's very unlikely that the result would actually be overturned," he said.

Prest says the act governing provincial elections states an electoral officer must apply for a judicial recount if there is a tie or if the difference between the first two candidates is less than one five-hundredth of the total ballots considered.

"That doesn't apply directly here but even as a sort of guideline [as to] when you might see a recount due to the closeness of the race, we're not within that band," he said. 

Prest said Monday's announcement came after an eventful Saturday night where McCallum made an initial concession speech, then retracted that concession when Locke's lead narrowed before conceding for a second time that night.

"I find that this is an unexpected development," Prest said of Monday's announcement.

"But I think at this point we've come to expect the unexpected from mayor McCallum."