Mike Farnworth played down the importance of endorsements from MLAs in the race to lead the British Columbia New Democratic Party as he announced the support of two caucus colleagues of his candidacy.

"We've got, what, six months to go," Farnwoth said. "The election's not decided by how many MLAs you have standing with you, but it will be decided by literally tens of thousands of members across the province."

He was announcing the support of Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson and Saanich South MLA Lana Popham.

The numbers were well short of the 15 MLAs who have already endorsed John Horgan's current campaign and the eight who endorsed Farnworth's 2011 leadership bid.

"I've been talking with lots of MLAs and I can tell you there are more who will be supporting me and I will be unveiling them in the weeks ahead," he said. "There will be my guess 20,000 plus members who will be voting by the 28th of September, and that's what counts."

Responding to a question about whether Adrian Dix's supporters from 2011 are going to Horgan, Farnworth said, "I think there'll be people from Adrian's camp who are supporting Horgan, and I'm sure there are people from Adrian's camp who will be supporting me."

Of the five who supported Dix in 2011, four have announced support for Horgan. The fifth, Bruce Ralston, is acting as house leader and has said he will not endorse anyone while the house is sitting.

Following is a list of NDP MLA endorsements so far:

Supporting Mike Farnworth:

Doug Donaldson

Lana Popham

Supporting John Horgan:

Robin Austin

Harry Bains

Raj Chouhan

Judy Darcy

Kathy Corrigan

David Eby

Mable Elmore

Scott Fraser

Sue Hammell

Carole James

Maurine Karagianis

Michelle Mungall

Bill Routley

Jane Shin

Claire Trevena

Yet to declare, with who they supported in 2011 in brackets:

Spencer Chandra Herbert

Katrine Conroy (Farnworth)

Rob Fleming (Farnworth)

George Heyman

Gary Holman (Farnworth)

Leonard Krog (Farnworth)

Jenny Kwan (Farnworth)

Norm Macdonald (Farnworth)

Jennifer Rice

Selina Robinson

Doug Routley (Farnworth)

Nicholas Simons (Horgan)

Shane Simpson (Horgan)

Not endorsing anyone:

Adrian Dix

Bruce Ralston (house leader)

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.