ANAM Kazim (NDP) has won the riding of Calgary-Glenmore by six votes after an official count by Elections Alberta on Friday gave Kazim 7,018 votes to Progressive Conservative incumbent Linda Johnson’s 7,012 votes.

Kazim had been in a tie with Johnson, each with 7,015 votes in the unofficial count. However, Johnson can still challenge the result within the next eight days.

If Kazim holds on to the seat, the NDP under Rachel Notley will have 54 MLAs, 26 of them women. The PC would have nine seats. The Wildrose Party has 21 seats in the election, and the Liberals and Alberta Party one each.

If Kazim wins any challenge, she will be the second South Asian MLA. The other is Irfan  Sabir (Calgary-McCall), a lawyer for an Aboriginal Law firm who has been living in Calgary since 2004 and has a degree in Economics from University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and a degree in Social Work and Law from the University of Calgary.

The rest of the 27 South Asian (Indo-Canadian / Pakistani-Canadian / Bangladeshi-Canadian) candidates lost. Most of them were candidates from the other three major parties.

Notley told the media this week that her NDP government will not table a full provincial budget until the fall.

A 12-member cabinet will be sworn in on Sunday.

The other elected members of the legislature will be sworn in on June 1.

Anam Kazim

Calgary-Glenmore

Kazim works as an applications engineer in Calgary. Previously, she was employed with a firm providing consultancy in project management. She also has research experience in designing environmentally friendly chemical processes at Western University.

She was raised in Toronto. She acquired both a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and master’s degree in biochemical / environmental engineering from Western University before moving west and settling in Calgary.