Ben Stewart casts an early vote at the voting station at Emmanuel Church on Hebert Road in West Kelowna, in this undated file photo.

(JULIE WHITTET / iNFOnews.ca)

WEST KELOWNA - After four elections in as six years, perhaps voters simply boycotted last February’s byelection in Kelowna West.

Or maybe the had better things to do on Valentines Day than stump out to one of the 12 voting places made available to the 47,000 or so voters who could have voted for one of five candidates.

Either way, only 31.5 per cent of the registered electorate made known their choice, the lowest number since before the 2013 general election that first returned West Kelowna vintner Ben Stewart to Victoria as MLA.

Elections B.C. released its report into the byelection today, Monday, July 9 and it shows a sharp drop in voter participation.

While byelections never get the attention of the main event, the dive from the general election turnout in 2017 of 55 per cent was particularly sharp.

Even the new found popularity of advance voting couldn’t fend off the seeming disinterest in the byelection that filled the seat left vacant by the resignation of then-Premier Christy Clark last August in the wake of the B.C. Liberal defeat at the polls.

In a trend seen elsewhere, advance voting went from 16.75 per cent of votes cast in the 2013 general election to 41 per cent this year.

Despite sea changes in the political landscape — the NDP was in government for this byelection, unlike the previous three — Stewart still won convincingly, taking 56.28 per cent of valid votes.

Runner up B.C. NDP candidate Shelley Cook was almost exactly half that at 23.51 per cent with the B.C. Greens and B.C. Conservatives splitting almost all the rest.

Stewart also won despite spending less ($80,184) than Cook ($141,974) and B.C. Green candidate Robert Stupka ($88,062).

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