Local body polls: State Election Commission to hold meeting of political parties on Saturday

With the delimitation of local body wards entering the final phase in Kerala, the State Election Commission is in the process of revising the electoral rolls ahead of the crucial elections to local bodies planned towards the end of 2025.

The commission, tasked with the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections to local bodies, will publish the draft rolls which is being updated by repositioning the population on the basis of the delimited wards and reorgansied polling booths, commission officials said.

The commission headed by A. Shajahan is convening a meeting of political parties in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday in connection with the revision of the rolls.

The State Delimitation Commission is hoping to wind up the delimitation process by the middle of August. Launched last year, the mammoth exercise is in the third and final phase, where the wards of the district panchayats are being reorganised.

The number of polling booths is also expected to see a revision following the delimitation. The Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has petitioned the State Election Commission to reorganise the per-booth voter numbers from 1,300 to 1,100 in panchayats and from 1,600 to 1,300 in municipalities.

Through a State government notification last year, the number of wards in grama, block, district panchayats, municipalities, and corporations had been increased from 21,900 to 23,612. The 87 municipalities now have 3,241 wards, the six Corporations 421 wards, and the 941 grama panchayats 17,337 wards. In the 152 block panchayats, the number has been revised to 2,267, and in the 14 district panchayats to 346.

In 2020, the elections were held to 1,199 local bodies (except Mattannur municipality) on December 8, 10, and 14. The elections were held in three phases on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.