What was supposed to be cakewalk to the federal Conservative leadership for Maxime Bernier has turned into a nail-biter as rivals Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole give him a run for his money.Gone from the race after seven ballots were Deepak Obhrai, Andrew Saxton, Rick Peterson, Kevin O’Leary, Chris Alexander, Steven Blaney and Lisa Raitt.Bernier was still in first place with 30.51 per cent of the points, followed by Scheer at 22.97 per cent, Erin O’Toole at 11.32 per cent and Brad Trost with 8.47 per cent.Obhrai was the first of 13 candidates to drop off the ballot as the party begins disclosing the results of voting, which began weeks ago by mail and culminated Friday with members voting in person at the Toronto Congress Centre and polling stations across the country.O’Leary dropped out of the race abruptly last month but was too late to have his name removed from the ballot.The lengthy ranked-ballot system and the size of the field means several rounds of balloting are expected to take place before a winner is finally crowned.Officials say 132,000 ballots — the party has some 259,000 eligible members — had been received by the Friday deadline for mail-in ballots.Candidates are scored not by votes, but by points: every riding in the country is allocated 100 points, and each candidate gets a number of points depending on their share of votes in that riding.Read more:O’Leary disputes claim he didn’t want the leadershipConservative leadership race almost in the bag for Maxime BernierVoter breakdown will reveal the direction of the Conservative party as members elect their new leader: HébertIf no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote on the first count, the last-place contender is eliminated and the second choices from that candidate’s ballots are then counted until one emerges with a majority.Mesh bags full of Conservative party balloons hung at the ready over the Toronto Congress C ...
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