Tight Saint John Harbour race in limbo for hours
CBC News | Posted: September 23, 2014 1:04 PM | Last Updated: September 23, 2014
Liberal Ed Doherty was ahead of PC Carl Killen by 40 votes when vote tallying ground to a halt
The Saint John region was filled with ups and downs in Monday's New Brunswick election, with several ridings in limbo for hours because of problems with the electronic voter tabulation process.
For Saint John Harbour candidates, election night elicited a feeling of déjà vu. In 2010, PC Carl Killen won the riding by just seven votes over Liberal Ed Doherty.
On Monday night, both candidates were left waiting for hours, this time with Doherty leading by 40 votes, when vote tallying by electronic tabulation machines came to a halt after discrepancies were discovered in vote counts.
"Apparently we've received advice from our lawyers not to concede the election," said Killen before going home.
Doherty waited for the final tally, while most of his supporters drifted away.
"My feeling regarding this sort of cloud that's overhanging is I'm very anxious to get on and serve the citizens of Saint John Harbour," he said.
At final count, Elections New Brunswick reported Doherty elected in the riding with 1,686 votes. That is 71 more than Killen who received 1,615.
Higgs, Flemming retain seats
The race in Saint John Harbour wasn't the closest in the region. In Saint John East, Liberal Gary Keating finished the night just eight votes ahead of the PC's Glen Savoie.
Meanwhile, PC Finance Minister Blaine Higgs enjoyed an early victory in Quispamsis, and was still holding out hope for a PC majority.
"What we can't do is throw out anything that we've done today. We have to make it stick, we have to build on successes. I'm hoping we're the government that will continue to do that," said Higgs.
In Rothesay, Health Minister Ted Flemming, also won, but watched the Liberals slowly overtake his party.
"We offered good government and a lot of tough decisions were made and a lot of times people don't like good government," said Flemming.