Preparations under way for local body polls later this year

With ward delimitation in local bodies entering Phase II in Kerala, preparations are also under way for the crucial 2025 local body elections scheduled for later this year.

The State Election Commission has kicked off  training sessions for officials responsible for preparing the electoral rolls and conducting the elections. The Commission is proceeding with the idea of holding the polls during November-December as the five-year terms of 1,199 local bodies expires in December, sources said.

As part of the preparations, the Commission will shortly launch the training sessions for the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO). In grama panchayats and municipalities, the local body secretaries are the EROs. In municipal corporations, the post is handled by additional secretaries. Earlier this, year, the Commission had completed the training of State-level resource persons.

Once the State Delimitation Commission completes the delimitation of wards, the EROs will need to revise the electoral rolls and reposition the population in line with the changes necessitated by the ward delimitation and voter limits set by the Commission for  polling stations. This rearrangement is likely to see an increase in the number of polling stations as the Commission has set a cap of 1,300 voters per station in the rural areas and 1,600 in the urban areas.

While the number of local bodies remain unchanged, the wards in the three-tier panchayats, municipalities and corporations have increased from 21,900 to 23,612.

The 2025 local body elections will be a keenly-watched one as they will be held after a comprehensive, Statewide ward delimitation, and ahead of the 2026 elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly. In 2020, the elections were held to 1,199 local bodies (except the Mattannur municipality) in three phases on December 8, 10 and 14 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Delimitation Commission, headed by State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan, on Wednesday issued the final notification on the delimited wards in the grama panchayats. The delimitation exercise has entered Phase II in which the boundaries of the 152 block panchayats are being redrawn. The third and final phase will cover the district panchayats.