EDMONTON — Conservative candidate Tim Uppal has called for a judicial recount in Edmonton Mill Woods after Amarjeet Sohi won the seat for the Liberals in Monday’s federal election.
A submission was made to the Court of Queen’s Bench Friday for the judicial recount, which was granted.
Lawyer Jonathan Denis, who is representing Uppal, said they had information from 18 different witnesses about voting irregularities in Edmonton Mill Woods.
“Irregularities happen almost every time you have an election, but in this particular case there were only 79 votes separating first from second and my client simply wants the public to be confident as to what the result is, whatever it is,” said Denis.
The recount is set for Tuesday and will take place over three days. The returning officer for the Edmonton Mill Woods riding will oversee the recount.
The first count showed Sohi won the seat in southeast Edmonton by 80 votes. A second count done Tuesday, which verifies the election results, found Sohi won by 79 votes. As is its practice, Elections Canada does validation counts to confirm results for all polls.
READ MORE: Verification count confirms Amarjeet Sohi won Edmonton Mill Woods for Liberals
The 79-vote win wasn’t enough to trigger an automatic judicial recount. In this case, the gap would have to be less than 49 votes for that to happen.
Denis said Uppal will cover his own legal fees, but there may be some cost to taxpayers for the recount. At this point it’s not known what those costs might be.
Results of the recount are expected to be released on Thursday.