VICTORIA — British Columbians will have to wait a little longer to find out the results of the HST referendum.
An Elections BC spokesman had originally said the independent agency hoped to have the results available on or about Thursday.
But Elections BC spokesman Don Main said Wednesday the results will be available Friday.
Main said there are no problems other than the vote counting process has taken a little longer than expected. The deadline for Elections BC to receive the mail-in ballots was Aug. 5.
The agency reported earlier that about 1.6 million people cast ballots in the HST referendum, about 52 per cent of eligible voters.
Main said there are size and counting differences when it comes to gathering the results of a mail-in referendum compared to what occurs on a provincial election night.
“In one night we have 37,000 people counting ballots all across the province, in various locations,” Main said. “Whereas, this is bringing all of the ballots back to one location and having a group of people them do a verification (of voters and their signatures.)”
About 140 people were on hand to count and verify the HST ballots. On election nights, voters are verified at the polling booths.
A decision in the referendum has been eagerly anticipated for a year after the referendum was prompted by a successful petition drive that called for the repeal of the controversial tax, which was introduced in July 2009.
The provincial government has said keeping the tax is crucial to the province’s economic future and in an effort to make it more palatable for voters, Premier Christy Clark has said the tax will drop to 10 per cent from 12 by 2014.