Just 984 votes decided the next mayor of Vancouver this municipal election.
Kennedy Stewart narrowly beat out Ken Sim in a race that came down to the last poll being counted.
Stewart won 49,812 votes, Sim won 48,828, and independent Shauna Sylvester finished a strong third with 35,537, according to unofficial results from the City of Vancouver.
According to preliminary voter turnout figures, CivicInfo BC estimates 36 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
There were a few smaller municipalities hand counting ballots and a few outstanding polls in the Lower Mainland as of early Sunday morning, the organization said.
Click here for B.C. mayoral and councillor results, broken down by municipalities
One of the biggest races to watch was Burnaby, where Mike Hurley was taking on long-time incumbent Derek Corrigan.
In what some call a shocking upset, Hurley defeated Corrigan, who has been Burnaby’s mayor since he was elected in 2002.
Full coverage of the 2018 B.C. municipal election on Globalnews.ca
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Former firefighter Mike Hurley wins Burnaby election -
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Decision BC: New faces joining new mayor Doug McCallum on Surrey city council -
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Doug McCallum takes the stage after winning mayoral race in Surrey -
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Surrey First mayoral candidate Tom Gill thanks voters
Hurley, a retired firefighter, earned 52.3 per cent of the votes, according to unofficial results posted by the city’s website. Corrigan finished second with 41.6 per cent of the votes.
Despite Corrigan’s loss, his Burnaby Citizens Association party still nearly swept council, earning all but one of the seats, including incumbents Sav Dhaliwal, Dan Johnston, Colleen Jordan, Paul McDonell, Pietro Calendino and James Wang. The final seat was filled by Joe Keithley of the Burnaby Green Party.
WATCH: Keith Baldrey has the biggest winners and surprises of the 2018 B.C. municipal election.
In Surrey, Doug McCallum was the winner in the city’s mayoral election.
McCallum, who was first elected to council in 1993, served as mayor of Surrey from 1996 to 2005.
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The head of the Safe Surrey Coalition, defeated challengers Coun. Tom Gill with Surrey First and Coun. Bruce Hayne with Integrity Now in a bruising campaign that included allegations of attempted election fraud.
Where you can get election results:
Global News has complete coverage of the municipal elections on TV, radio and online.
BC1 broadcast our Global News election special from 8 p.m. to past midnight; Global BC and Global Okanagan aired the special from 10 p.m. to midnight. The show was livestreamed above and on the Global BC Facebook page, plus simulcast on CKNW.
The special was hosted by Chris Gailus, Sophie Lui and Keith Baldrey, with Richard Zussman providing live results throughout the show and reporters out in the field and around the Lower Mainland and Kelowna.
CKNW’s Simi Sara and Lynda Steele also hosted panels with local politicians and experts throughout the evening.
Scroll down for live Vancouver mayor, council, school board and park board results.
WATCH: Decision 2018: The Vancouver voting power shift
Going into the election, Vancouver neighbourhoods once regarded as party strongholds saw a decline in voter population, according to new numbers pointing to a shift in the city’s political balance of power.
Simon Fraser University city program director Andy Yan studied information from Statistics Canada, census data from 2006 and 2016 and files from the City of Vancouver’s open data database.
READ MORE: With 1 week to civic elections, Metro Vancouver candidates face unsettled electorate
The findings: the tipping of the balance of power began around 2006, when the NPA’s hold on Vancouver’s west side started to wane as demographics began changing.
WATCH: Global News election show Focus BC on BC1:
Commentator Mike McDonald suggested the 2018 election race would be B.C.’s most consequential.
“The next Surrey Council will have four years to shape the future, and not just of 316 square kilometres south of the Fraser, but as the second-largest voting bloc on the Metro Vancouver regional board. It will have influence from Bowen Island to Bradner,” he wrote.
“Against this backdrop, the Surrey City election on Oct. 20 may have the most impact of any local election in British Columbia.”
WATCH: Newly elected Delta Mayor George Harvie on fixing infrastructure
However, voter fraud allegations posed new challenges for the undecided voter.
Surrey was the first Metro Vancouver municipality to see fraud allegations surface, with anti-crime group Wake Up Surrey alleging a coordinated campaign to illegally use absentee ballots.
None of those ballots were ever distributed to voters, but the Surrey RCMP said nearly 70 fraudulent applications had been identified.
New allegations surfaced during the campaigns involving allegations to to buy votes in Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby.
However, on Friday, Richmond RCMP said it had uncovered no evidence of possible voter manipulation associated to the social media app WeChat.
“To date, the Richmond RCMP has only received third party allegations of wrong doing in the election process. No individuals have come forward to the Richmond RCMP citing that they have been victimized in any matters related to the voting process. We are continuing to encourage anyone who believes that they may have been a victim to come forward and speak to us,” Cpl. Dennis Hwang, media relations officer for the Richmond RCMP, said in a release.
-with files from Richard Zussman and Simon Little
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