8 a.m. Tuesday September 21: Kelvin Kotchilea has posted to Facebook, congratulating Michael McLeod on winning the election.
Kotchilea thanked his supporters and volunteers. The McLeod team had been trying to reach Kotchilea’s team late last night to see if they were conceeding, but couldn’t reach them.
Kotchilea’s announcement comes before results from mail-in ballots have come in. Currently, the gap between the two is 678 votes.
“To everyone reaching out last night and this morning, asking me to run again in the next federal election, if the NDP and the local EDA would have me as their candidate again, I’ll definitely give it another go, it was a close race,” Kotchilea wrote in his post.
12:30 p.m.: Michael McLeod has claimed victory in the election, despite mail-in ballots still being uncounted.
McLeod spoke to media at a press event just after midnight, saying the NDP candidates were unreachable when being asked if they were conceeding.
McLeod broke out into a lead early in the night, and after the race tightened to within 300 votes, McLeod stretched out to a bigger lead by the end of the night, with 37.8 per cent and 701 more votes than NDP’s Kelvin Kotchilea, who is at 32.5 per cent.
10:30 p.m.: While elections are being called elsewhere in the country, the race in the NWT is tightening.
Political newcomer Kevin Kotchilea is running Michael McLeod close. Kotchilea had 32.8 per cent of the vote compared with McLeod’s 37 per cent.
But there are only 300 votes in it.
McLeod’s press event began at 8:30 p.m. but as of yet has not spoken. Staffers have said a final result may not come in until tomorrow.
9:30 p.m.: Polling stations are now closed across Canada. The Liberal Party will form a minority government. As of 11:23 pm Monday night the national elected results are as follows
Liberal Party: 113 elected (leading 44)
Conservatives: 104 elected (leading 18)
Bloc Quebecois: 25 elected (leading 4)
NDP: 16 (leading 12)
Green Party: 0 (leading 2)
People’s Party of Canada: 0 (0 leading)
To form a majority government one party must win at least 170 seats. Mail-in ballots will not begin to be counted until Tuesday, no results are final until that process has ended.
8:15 p.m.: Some new results are coming in, as polls are now closed across the country.
The Liberal Party is set to win 20 seats and is leading in 63.
The Conservatives are winning 6 seats and leading in 36.
The NDP are winning 0 seats but leading in 14, with the Bloc Quebecois having the exact same numbers, winning 0 but leading 14.
The Green Party have won zero seats but are currently leading in 1 seat.
The People’s Party of Canada are neither winning or leading in a single seat.
There are no results from the NWT yet.
8:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time: Voting is now complete in this election, as the last open polls close in B.C. and Yukon.
Most polls in the country closed at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
Election Canada says people who are waiting in line outside polling stations after the deadline closes will still be allowed to vote, according to a report from CBC.
Some NWT residents were unable to vote because they were self-isolating due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, with no alternative option provided.
7:45 p.m.: Polls are now closed everywhere in the country except from British Columbia and the Yukon.
Votes are just starting to be counted in the NWT, with only a few results available, entirely from Atlantic Canada, where polls closed earlier today.
The Liberal Party is projected to win 20 seats, the Conservatives have 6 seats, the NDP still has, as does the Bloc Quebecois, Green Party and the People’s Party of Canada.
There are only 26 of 338 polls reporting so far tonight.
7:30 p.m.: Polls are now closed in the NWT as well as Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
7 p.m. Mountain Standard time: Polls are open for another 30 minutes in the Northwest Territories, as polls close further east in the country.
Eastern Canada is reporting preliminary results as polls have closed in Atlantic Canada.
So far the elected results are as follows, the Liberal Party has 9 seats, the Conservatives have 4 seats, the NDP has zero seats, the Bloc Quebecois has zero seats, the Green Party has zero seats and the People’s Party of Canada also has 0 seats.
There are only 13 of 338 polls reporting so far tonight. To form a majority government one party much win at least 170 seats. Mail-in ballots will not begin to be counted until Tuesday, no results are final until that process has ended.
It could be a few days before results are finalized with officials not beginning to count mail in ballots until tomorrow.
