The fate of B.C.鈥檚 next government came down to the wire, as the final count for absentee ballots in the Courtenay-Comox riding continued until Wednesday.

Keith Archer, chief electoral officer for B.C. announced around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday the final count was still in progress but Elections BC has completed counting just over half the absentee ballots.

As of Record press time Wednesday morning, NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard took a 101 vote lead over BC Liberals candidate Jim Benninger, with 10,481 votes to 10,380 respectively.

The electoral district saw a difference of nine votes on election night as the margin of victory between the two candidates.

Following a recount Monday, Leonard鈥檚 lead was extended to 13 votes. On Tuesday, Elections BC began counting more than 2,000 absentee votes for the area, and Benninger took the lead by three votes - 10,098 to Leonard鈥檚 10,095.

Provincially, there are more than 176,100 to be counted; the final count began May 22 and it must be completed within three days, after which the final results will be announced. All election results will only become official after those counts are in.

Whichever candidates gets elected could determine whether Premier Christy Clark will form a majority government. Currently, the BC Liberals hold one seat shy of the required 44 for a majority.

The NDP hold 41, while the Green Party hold three.

Visit comoxvalleyrecord.com for updates to this story.