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British Columbia

8 seats, 1 mayor, 48 candidates: A voter's guide to Surrey's crowded civic ballot

A number of parties are seeking to break Surrey First's dominance on city council

A number of parties are seeking to break Surrey First's dominance on city council

The plaza outside Surrey City Hall during a rally to protest gang violence in June. Crime prevention and transit planning are key issues in this year's civic election. (Meera Bains/CBC)

Only one of every six candidates for Surrey city council will be elected on Oct. 20.

Surrey First, which has led the municipality since 2008 (and has been been elected to every seat in the last two elections), was the last party to unveil its full slate of candidates but a number of independent candidates came forward in the final week before the deadline, fora total of 48 candidates in all.

That's up from 35 in 2014 and 27 in 2011.

Here's a brief look at who has declared. Thelist will be updated if anyone removes their name from the ballot before the Sept. 21 deadline.

  • Surrey First (eightcouncil candidates and one mayoral candidate):IncumbentcouncillorsVera LeFranc and Mike Starchuk, with newcomers Linda Annis, NarimaDela Cruz, Trevor Halford, Paul Hillsdon, Upkar Tatlay and Raminder Thomas. Current councillor Tom Gill is the candidate for mayor.
  • Surrey Integrity Now (fivecouncil candidates and one mayoral candidate):Incumbent councillorsDave Woods and Barbara Steele (who switched to Integrity Nowthis election), along with Avi Dhaliwal, John Gibeau and Rina Gill. Current councillor Bruce Hayne is thecandidate for mayor.
  • Safe Surrey Coalition (eight council candidates and one mayoral candidate): Doug Elford, Laurie Guerra, Jack Hundial, Mandeep Nagra, Brenda Locke, Allison Patton, Steven Pettigrewand Bableen Rana. Former mayor Doug McCallum is the candidate for mayor.
  • Independent Surrey Voters Association (five council candidates):Saira Aujla, Bernie Sheppard, Nasima Nastoh, Asad SyedandDerek Zabel.
  • Proudly Surrey (fourcouncil candidates and one mayoral candidate):Adam MacGillivray, Parshotam Goel, Felix KongyuyandStuart Parker.Pauline Greavesis their candidate for mayor.
  • People First Surrey (four council candidates and one mayoral candidate): Maria Foster, Murali Krishnan, Yanni Yu, Paul Rusan andThampy Rajan. Rajesh Jayaprakash is their candidate for mayor.
  • Other:former Vancouver Park Board commissioner Roslyn Cassellsis running for council under the "GreenVote" banner, and Deanna Welters is running under the "Progessive Sustainable" banner. Running as indpendents areNeeraAgnihotri, Kashmir Besla, Tanvir Bhupal, Brian Calderwood, Neneng Galento,Afshan Kamran,Nicholas Loberg,Kuldip Pelia,Major Singh Rasode, Forrest Smith,Deanna Welters and Becky Zhou.

The city will have advanced voting on Oct. 6, 10, 11 and 13 in six different locations, which can be found here.