FINAL RESULTS of THE 2008 CANADIAN ELECTION

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001430 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV CA SUBJECT: FINAL RESULTS of THE 2008 CANADIAN ELECTION REF: OTTAWA 1324 ¶1. (U) Elections Canada has now validated all results of the 2008 federal election on October 14 (reftel and previous). The results are not technically official until the Chief Electoral Officer publishes them in a formal report on or before January 14, 2009 (within 90 days of the return of the writ of election),but are all nonetheless final as of November 6 (following a series of obligatory recounts -- see para 3). ¶2. (U) The final party standings in the 40th Parliament's House of Commons are: Conservative Party of Canada 143 seats Liberal Party of Canada 77 seats Bloc Quebecois 49 seats New Democratic Party (NDP) 37 seats Independent 2 seats Total 308 seats ¶3. (U) Recounts took place in five "ridings" (electoral districts). An automatic judicial recount must take place if the difference between the number of votes cast for the candidate with the most votes and the number cast for any other candidate is less than one one-thousandth (1/1000) of the votes cast in that riding. Automatic recounts took place in the ridings of Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) and Vancouver South (British Columbia). Judicial recounts also took place in three other ridings at the request of at least one elector in each riding. An elector must provide credible evidence that officials may have committed errors in tabulating the votes. The recount in the Quebec riding of Brossard-La Prairie reversed the election night victory of a Bloc Quebecois candidate and awarded the seat to a Liberal candidate. All other recounts affirmed the originally declared victors. WILKINS