---
title: "Devyani Singh wins a council seat for COPE with 65,473 votes"
description: "COPE climate scientist Devyani Singh won one of the ten Vancouver city council seats on Saturday's preliminary count, becoming the second COPE councillor elected in 2026."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/devyani-singh-elected-council-cope-october-19"
last_updated: "2026-10-19T08:59:34.352Z"
---

Devyani Singh won one of Vancouver's ten city council seats on the COPE slate, taking 65,473 votes in the City's preliminary count from October 18, according to Daily Hive's reporting of that count. Singh placed fourth among the ten winning council candidates.

Singh ran under the COPE banner in 2026 after running under Green Party colours in two provincial races and one federal race. In 2022 she ran for city council with the Green Party of Vancouver, taking 21,255 votes and finishing 23rd of 59 council candidates.

Rattan Mall, writing in the Indo-Canadian Voice on October 18, reported that Singh and Mayor-elect Pete Fry both celebrated at an election night gathering after the results came in. Journalist Charlie Smith, also writing in the Indo-Canadian Voice, described Singh as "Uttarakhand-raised" and noted that since 1886, only one person born in India had previously been elected to Vancouver city council: Setty Pendakur, in 1972. voche.me has not independently verified that historical claim.

**Singh's background**

The COPE party page describes Singh as a climate scientist, financial analyst, and economist, and uses the title Dr. The University of British Columbia library holds a 2019 doctoral thesis by Devyani Singh in the Forestry program, focused on how households in rural India use wood for cooking and how cleaner fuels affect forests and climate.

The COPE page also says Singh is a lead researcher at Stand.earth and helped stop funding that went toward cutting the Amazon forest, according to the party. Those are the party's own claims and voche.me has not audited them.

The Ubyssey reported in 2024 that Singh had been a UBC PhD student who spent between 80 and 100 percent of their student stipend on housing costs.

**The new council**

The preliminary count gives COPE four council seats: Sean Orr (83,038 votes), Annette Reilly (78,476 votes), Chloe Leslie (67,791 votes), and Singh (65,473 votes). Four Green councillors, one OneCity councillor (Lucy Maloney, 63,143 votes), and Mayor Fry round out the eleven seats. No single party holds a majority.

The preliminary count is sourced from the City's October 18 count as reported by Daily Hive. The official results will be declared no later than October 21, 2026.

Voters can see the full preliminary count for all four races, including council, park board, and school board, at [/results](/results). Singh's candidate page is at [/candidates/devyani-singh](/candidates/devyani-singh).

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