Stage set for second and final phase of local body polls in Kerala tomorrow

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 10 The second phase of polling for Kerala's local body elections will be held on Thursday across seven districts. The State Election Commission has put in place elaborate security and monitoring arrangements, especially at 2,055 sensitive polling booths identified as vulnerable, an official said on Wednesday.

Polling will begin at 7 a.m. and continue till 6 p.m. Voting is scheduled to take place in 604 local self-government institutions spread across Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

These include 470 gram panchayats, 77 block panchayats, seven district panchayats, 47 municipalities and three corporations. A total of 12,391 wards are going to the polls in this phase.

The electorate for this phase stands at 1,53,37,176 voters, including 72,46,269 men, 80,90,746 women and 161 transgender voters. The voter list also includes 3,293 overseas voters.

As many as 38,994 candidates are in the fray, comprising 18,974 men and 20,020 women. Of these, 28,274 candidates are contesting from gram panchayat wards, 3,742 from block panchayats, 681 from district panchayats, 5,546 from municipalities and 751 from corporations.

For the conduct of polling, 18,274 control units and 49,019 ballot units have been readied, while 2,631 control units and 6,943 ballot units have been kept in reserve. Out of the total polling stations, 2,055 booths have been classified as sensitive.

District-wise, Kannur accounts for the highest number with 1,025 such booths, followed by Malappuram (295), Wayanad (189), Palakkad (180), Kozhikode (166), Kasaragod (119) and Thrissur (81). These booths are under enhanced security cover with additional police deployment and live webcasting.

Monitoring is being carried out through control rooms at district collectorates and the State Election Commission headquarters under the supervision of city police commissioners and district police chiefs.

In Kannur district's Iritty Municipality, polling will not take place in five wards where candidates were elected unopposed.

Similarly, polling has been deferred in the Paiyambra seventh ward of Muthuthala Panchayat in Malappuram following the death of a UDF candidate. The Election Commission has warned of strict action against any attempt to disrupt the polling process, including unauthorised entry into polling stations, crowding or intimidation of voters.

With multi-layered security, live monitoring and inter-departmental coordination in place, the Commission expects the second phase of polling to be conducted in a peaceful, transparent and orderly manner.

On Tuesday, the first phase of polls was held in seven districts, recorded a turnout of over 70 per cent and went off peacefully. Counting of votes will be taken up on Saturday.

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