Edmonton’s former mayor was elected Monday into the Alberta Legislature during a byelection that would see four vacant seats in the legislature filled.

The polls closed in Edmonton-Whitemud, Calgary-Foothills, Calgary-Elbow and Calgary-West at 8 p.m. and within the hour unofficial results had started coming in.

Some saw the byelection as a chance for Albertans those ridings to issue a report card on the Progressive Conservative Party, as Health Minister, and former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel sought the seat in Edmonton, Premier Jim Prentice ran to represent Calgary-Foothills, and Education Minister Gordon Dirks ran for the seat in Calgary-Elbow. In Calgary-West, PC Candidate Mike Ellis rounded out the party’s contribution to the byelection.

Just after 9 p.m., CTV News projected a Prentice victory, and a few minutes later, the same was projected for Mandel.

Mandel’s two closest opponents, Bob Turner with the Alberta New Democrats and Tim Grover with the Wildrose Party both conceded just after 9 p.m.

At 10 p.m., all 95 polling stations in Edmonton-Whitemud had reported back – and Mandel was elected with 6,003 votes (42 percent), followed by Bob Turner with 3,150 votes (22 percent) and Grover with 2,679 votes (19 percent).

In Calgary-Foothills, all 79 polls reported back before 10 p.m., with 6,898 votes (58 percent) counted for Prentice; Wildrose candidate Kathy MacDonald had 3,545 votes (30 percent).

“Six weeks ago, we began the process of reconnecting the government with the needs and priorities of Albertans. We placed Alberta under new management with new leadership, with new voices and with a new way of doing things,” Prentice said in his victory speech.

Just before 10 p.m., Elections Alberta reported that all 74 stations had reported back in Calgary-West, and PC candidate Mike Ellis had been elected in that riding with 4,843 votes (44 percent), with Wildrose Party candidate Sheila Taylor behind him with 315 fewer votes, 4,528 (42 percent).

Finally, results for Calgary-Elbow were finalized, with 4,207 votes (33 percent) for Dirks, Alberta Party candidate Greg Clark garnered 3,412 votes (27 percent), and Wildrose candidate John Fletcher had 3,056 votes (24 percent) cast for him.

Reaction from Edmonton-Whitemud candidates

Mandel thanked residents of his riding for electing him in his victory speech.

“I look forward to working with them over the next 18 months, hopefully quite a bit longer,” Mandel said. “They’ve been phenomenally warm, friendly; they’ve opened their hearts…sometimes critical which is fair.”

“Once you’re a member of the government, you represent everybody in that constituency, so when you represent everybody, so we will represent everybody,” Mandel said.

The Health Minister congratulated Premier Jim Prentice on his win in Calgary-Foothills, before referring to his appointment to cabinet before he was elected.

“Some people questioned it, but we’re here today, and now we’re kosher,” he said.

“It’s not fun to lose, but we gave it a huge effort,” Grover said, admitting he ran against a major opponent in Edmonton’s former mayor.

“He is a former mayor, great name recognition; we’re in one of the strongest PC strongholds. [We were] able to bring down the PC support about 20 points, which I think we’re really proud of,” Grover said.

The Wildrose candidate said he plans to run again in 2016.

As for Turner, the local doctor said he’s planning to return to his practice, and like Grover, he looked at his results as a positive step for his party.

“We made a tremendous victory here tonight,” Turner said. “The [New Democrats] are the force in this riding and the force in Edmonton and potentially across the province.”

New NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the results of this vote showed changes were on the way for the governing party.

“In this riding, we beat everybody except the Tories. Ahead of the Wildrose, Liberals, Alberta Party,” Notley said. “The fact of the matter is people want change, people looking for progressive change need to know we are the party with the capacity and the energy to move forward.”

With files from Serena Mah and CTV Calgary