---
title: "Surrey Board of Education faces possible $840,000 byelection after trustee wins provincial seat"
description: "Garry Thind was elected both a Surrey school trustee on October 17 and an MLA on October 24. Once sworn in as MLA, he will be disqualified as a trustee, and a court may decide whether to hold a $840,000 byelection or seat the next candidate."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/bc/surrey-2026/news/surrey-board-of-education-byelection-garry-thind-mla"
last_updated: "2026-10-31T17:02:55.147Z"
---

Surrey Board of Education may face a byelection costing $840,000 (an estimate from the City of Surrey) after [Garry Thind](/bc/surrey-2026/candidates/garry-thind-surrey-2026) was elected both a school trustee on October 17 and an MLA on October 24. Under BC law, he cannot hold both positions, and a court will decide what happens to his trustee seat.

The Surrey Now-Leader reported on October 29 that Thind will be disqualified from the trustee position once he is sworn in as an MLA in coming weeks. At that point, a judge may be asked to decide under BC's Local Government Act.

**Two possible outcomes**

The Local Government Act gives a court two options when an elected trustee is disqualified. The court can order a byelection, or it can declare the candidate with the next-highest vote count elected in the disqualified candidate's place.

That candidate is [Gary Tymoschuk](/bc/surrey-2026/candidates/gary-tymoschuk), who received 32,681 votes in the October 17 trustee race, placing seventh out of 24 candidates for 6 seats. Tymoschuk ran with the Surrey First Education slate, the same slate Thind ran with.

Surrey Schools put the cost of a byelection at $840,000, describing it as an initial estimate from the City of Surrey. The district confirmed that cost would be paid entirely by the school district.

**How Thind ended up elected twice**

Thind was re-elected as a school trustee on October 17, placing second among trustee candidates with 43,893 votes. His name remained on the civic ballot even though he had entered the BC provincial race before voting day. He won the Surrey-Guildford MLA seat on October 24.

On BC election night, Thind said Conservative officials were "looking for options if there is any legal way of not getting a byelection done," according to the Surrey Now-Leader. He said he did not want extra costs for taxpayers and that "people will be happy if there is no cost involved in getting a byelection done for one seat."

**Who decides, and when**

According to Surrey Schools, any application to the court must be filed within 30 days of the certification of election results, which is November 20, 2026. The Local Government Act allows the Chief Election Officer, any candidate in the election, or any four electors to apply. No application had been filed as of October 29.

"The District cannot comment on what Garry Thind's election as an MLA means for filling the final Board seat or the possibility of any byelection," Surrey Schools said. "That will depend on whether a court application is made and, if so, how the court rules."

Voters who want to follow whether a byelection is called, and to track the new board's decisions, can watch the [Surrey election results](/bc/surrey-2026/results) and the [promise tracker](/bc/surrey-2026/tracker) on this site.

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