OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 09/05/08 -- - Preliminary results will be available at www.elections.ca from 8:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Monday, September 8, 2008. Unofficial voter turnout results will be displayed in real time throughout the night.

- For the federal by-elections in Guelph (Ontario), Saint-Lambert (Quebec) and Westmount-Ville-`Marie (Quebec), as soon as polls close, the deputy returning officers count the votes and transmit results to the returning officers for those electoral districts, who immediately relay them electronically to Elections Canada in Ottawa.

- On election day, there is a ban on disseminating election results until the last polls close in all electoral districts.

"As soon as the polls close, Elections Canada staff work together to get election results to Canadians as soon as possible," says Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand. "The first results are usually on our Web site within 20 minutes."

Elections Canada is an independent body set up by Parliament.