The vote count from the 2024 Saskatchewan election has officially been finalized, with one seat decided by under 100 votes.
It was a close race throughout the province, as some seats in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert were too close to predict.
Elections Saskatchewan confirmed Saturday that the candidates who were leading in two Saskatoon ridings, which CBC considered too close to call, were in fact victorious.
The Saskatchewan Party avoided being overtaken in Saskatoon by the NDP, with Saskatchewan Party’s Ken Cheveldayoff re-elected in Saskatoon-Willowgrove by 136 votes.
Ken Cheveldayoff, MLA for Saskatoon Willowgrove is sworn in as a cabinet minister. Premier Scott Moe appointed Cheveldayoff as Saskatchewan’s Minister of Advanced Education. (Alexander Quon/CBC)
Saskatchewan’s re-elected Premier Scott Moe was feeling pretty confident about Cheveldayoff, as he named him advanced education minister earlier this week.
The NDP’s April ChiefCalf won the seat of constituency in Saskatoon-Westview by a close race, beating the Saskatchewan Party’s David Buckingham with 74 votes.
These two ridings were the Saskatchewan Party’s last chance at big city seats, as all other ridings in Saskatoon have gone to the NDP. The Saskatchewan Party holds zero seats in Regina.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 of the 61 ridings to form a majority government with 244, 037 votes and the NDP won 27 ridings with 188, 373 votes to form the Official Opposition. No third party won a seat.
Election results displayed a much higher voter turnout this time around. More than 56 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots, which is higher than the 2020 election, where 52 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots.
Saskatchewan cast 471,087 votes in total, out of those votes, 26, 388 mail ballots were counted.
Elections Saskatchewan counted the majority of the ballots received during the week of the election.
On Saturday the remaining ballots cast at remand centres and hospitals and those received by mail were counted. It is required by legislation to wait 12 days following the last day of voting to count those ballots.
The 61 returning offices also verified Saturday that their results were entered correctly on election night.