NDP takes Regina-Lewvan in razor thin race

Results in thenew Regina-Lewvan ridingflip-flopped all night.

It wasa tight two-way race between Conservative Trent Fraser and NDP candidate Erin Weir at some points less than onepercentage pointseparated them but just before midnight, Weir was declared the winner by 143 votes.

The urban-only riding, created in the recent redistribution, was favoured to go to the NDP last election under its current boundaries.(The city-only polls show the NDP received45 per centof the vote and theConservative Party44 per cent.)

But perhaps on the wave of a national majority, the local Liberal candidate LouisBrowne came a strong third increasing the party's share of the popular vote by more than 10 percentage points.

The Liberal and NDP candidates hadprevious experience in political campaigns. Browne is a former member of Regina city council. Weir ran for the Saskatchewan NDP leadership in 2012.

Regina-Lewvan has the most voters of all the Saskatchewan ridings and nearly 75% of them cast a ballot this time around, compared to about two-thirds in 2011.