An "ecstatic" Nathan Pachal won election to Langley City Council Saturday night.
Pachal won the by-election to fill the seat left vacant by the late councillor Dave Hall with a comfortable margin over his nearest rival.
The initial results from the by-election Saturday night show Pachal won with 740 votes.
Kiernan Hillan was second with 557 votes.
More than 2,000 people voted.
The by-election victory came after Pachal was narrowly edged out of a city council seat during his first attempt at winning office in the last municipal election.
"Losing by 71 votes was a little bit painful, to be honest," Pachal said.
He thought that fact motivated his supporters to get out and vote this time.
"People, I think really wanted a different perspective on council and today, they clearly voted that way," Pachal said.
At 32, Pachal will be the youngest member of council.
"I'm from a different generation so hopefully I can bring that perspective to the table … so now there'll be a bit more balance, I think."
Pachal signaled his priorities will be the issues that dominated the by-election.
"People want investment in infrastructure, they want to see the downtown revitalized, they want to see something done about homelessness and crime and poverty in their community."
He was confident going into the election, but admitted to some nervousness election night.
"Today was very, very nerve racking," Pachal sad.
He described his feeling at learning the results, shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. as "absolute relief."
Pachal was visited by members of the current council after the results were known, including mayor Ted Schaffer, who told Pachal the new councillor was "going to pull the (average) age down"
The rest of the field of nine candidates finished far back of the top two finishers.
Sharon Newbery was third with 158.
Shelley Coburn was fourth with 141.
Mel Kositsky was fifth with 140.
Carol Gran was sixth with 126 votes.
Rae Maj was seventh with 79.
George Roman was eighth with 76.
Serena Oh was ninth with 57 votes.