Randeep Sarai, 46, has scored a third term in public office as the Liberal MP for Surrey Centre.
As was before this election, he’ll be sitting on the power side of a minority Liberal government.
Sarai thanked his campaign team, family and “all of the volunteers” that “worked day and night” in their effort to get him re-elected.
Randeep Sarai makes election victory speech Monday at Crown Palace Banquet Hall in Surrey. (Submitted photo)
“I’m feeling great, it’s really a big honour to serve the constituents of Surrey Centre and for them to give me a third mandate,” he told the Now-Leader on Monday night. “They’ve given me a third mandate with an even bigger margin and I’m very honoured and very humbled about that. I just want to continue to serve Surrey residents and Surrey Centre residents in particular to make sure they get a fair share of services, of post-secondary education and government services and I’ll fight for then every step of the way to make sure their needs are addressed and their tax dollars are put to good use.”
“A lot of people worked day and night for this, so I really am indebted to them, all the volunteers and supporters that helped make this happen and especially all the constituents who really put their trust in me again,” Sarai added.
At the end of the night, with 162 of 163 polls reporting, Sarai received 15,749 of the 35,784 votes tallied up to that point, followed by the NDP’s Sonia Andhi with 9,782 votes. Tina Bains of the Conservatives came in third, with 7,616 votes, followed by Joe Kennedy of the People’s Party of Canada who came in fourth place with 1,472 votes.
Sarai was first elected in the riding in 2015, winning 19,471 votes and defeating NDP incumbent Jasbir Sandhu, who came in second place with 12,992 votes. In that election, Sarai won 45.07 per cent of the vote.
Well if they were looking for affirmation, great but tonight is demonstrating this pandemic election didn't really need to be held.
— Tom Zytaruk (@tomzytaruk) September 21, 2021
Sarai was then re-elected in 2019 with 37.40 per cent of the vote, receiving 15,453 votes while NDP candidate Sarjit Singh Saran came in second place with 11,353 votes and Tory candidate Tina Bains coming in third with 10,505 votes. Surrey Centre’s voter turnout in the 2019 election, incidentally, was the second lowest in the province, at 53.6 per cent.
Sarai spent $83,457.32 on his 2019 campaign, compared to Saran’s $50,584.88 and Bain’s $45,184.43. In his 2015 campaign, Sarai spent $106,885.13 compared to Sandhu who spent $128,114.24.
Seven MP candidates competed for office for in this latest election. It should be noted that mail-in ballots have yet to be counted so tonight’s results are preliminary results.
Voters in Surrey Centre had a choice of Liberal incumbent Randeep Sarai, Conservative Tina Bains, New Democrat Sonia Andhi, Green Party candidate Felix Kongyuy, Kevin Pielak of the Christian Heritage Party, Joe Kennedy of the People’s Party of Canada and Ryan Abbott, of the Communist Party of Canada.
Of these, Sarai, Bains and Pielak also ran in the 2019 election.
This riding, according to Elections Canada, is 44 km-squared with a population of 120,172 and of that 74,637 eligible voters are on the list.
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Randeep Sarai makes election victory speech Monday at Crown Palace Banquet Hall in Surrey. (Submitted photo)
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