On Tuesday (December 9), local bodies in seven districts in southern and central Kerala — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam — will go to the polling booths in Phase I of the two-phased 2025 elections. State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan said on Sunday that all arrangements have been made for elections to be held in a peaceful atmosphere.
“My request to voters is that all those eligible should vote on the polling days. Local body elections impact our daily lives. Local self-government institutions are not law-making bodies, but administrative ones. The elected members also become members of the several standing committees which wield financial and other powers. The State Election Commission (SEC) hopes that the public will use their votes appropriately and also ensure 100% polling,” Mr. Shajahan said here on Sunday.
Of the 1,199 local bodies in Kerala where elections are being held this year in two phases, 595 local bodies with 11,168 wards — 8,310 wards in 471 grama panchayats, 1,090 wards in 75 block panchayats, 164 wards in seven district panchayats, 1,371 wards in 39 municipalities and 233 wards in three Corporations, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kochi — will go to the polling booths in Phase I.
Electoral exercises
The 2025 elections planned on December 9 and 11 are happening after a series of critical electoral exercises starting with the State government notifying an increase in the number of local body wards in 2024. This was followed by a mammoth ward delimitation helmed by Mr. Shajahan as Chairman of the State Delimitation Commission. This exercise redrew the contours of wards within local bodies. In the next step, the SEC revised and updated its electoral rolls in line with the delimited wards.
The voter rolls used for the 2020 elections had undergone revisions in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, voters were again given a number of opportunities to enroll themselves in the lists or make corrections in them, Mr. Shajahan, who assumed charge as the seventh State Election Commissioner on March 31, 2021, said. “The final rolls were published after addressing all claims and objections. We placed maximum emphasis on the purification of the rolls,” he said.
This time, much to the consternation of political parties, the run-up to the local body elections had coincided with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Commission of India’s (EC) own electoral rolls.
36,630 candidates
The seven districts going to the polls on December 9 have a little over 1.32 crore voters, including 70.32 lakh female voters, 62.51 lakh male voters and 126 transgender voters. In all, 456 overseas electors are also eligible to vote on Tuesday. Local body-wise break-ups show that panchayats have a little over 1.01 crore voters, while municipalities and Corporations have 15.58 lakh and 15.78 lakh voters each. Phase I has 36,630 candidates in the fray, including one transgender candidate contesting in the Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat.
Phase I has 15,432 polling stations spread across the seven districts. The SEC has also identified 480 polling stations as ‘sensitive’ in Phase I. As part of the security arrangements, live webcasts and videography have been arranged at these stations, the Commissioner said.
“The political campaigns between November 10, when the elections were declared, and now have generally been very peaceful. All efforts had been taken to ensure that the Model Code of Conduct was adhered to and to prevent other prohibited activities,” he said.
Published – December 07, 2025 08:47 pm IST
