Thiruvananthapuram: Elections to local self-government institutions in the state will be held in three phases on the 8, 10 and 14 Dec, the State Election Commission announced today.
Districts will witness elections in phases stated as under:
Phase - I : Dec 8(Tues) - Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Idukki
Phase - II : Dec 10(Thurs) - Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Wayanad
Phase - III : Dec 14(Mon ) - Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur Kasaragod
Voting will begin 7 am morning and end at 6 pm on each of the three aforesaid days. Counting will take place 16 Dec beginning 8 am.
Polls are being held for 1199 of the 1200 local self bodies : 941 Grama Panchayats, 152 Block Panchayats, 14 District Panchayats, 86 Municipalities at 6 Municipal Corporations.
Mattanoor Municipality is the sole constituency to are set aside. Voting will take place with covid protocols strictly in place. Wearing of masks, gloves, sanitizing hands and social distancing will be ensured.
Processes are so arranged that it becomes possible for new committees to assume power before 31 December. The final voters’ list was published on 1 October. Additional voters’ list was published on 10 Oct. There are 2,71,20,823 voters in all. A total of 34,774 polling stations have been set up.
The last day to submit nomination paper is 19 November. All nominations will have been processed and scrutinised by 20 Nov. The last day to withdraw nomination papers is 23 Nov. Model Code of Conduct comes into force from today, 6 Nov.
Training officials for election procedures is underway and comprises EVM, fist level checking etc. The Election Commission will designate 2 lakh personnel as election staff. Given pandemic conditions, there are restrictions to the nature of meetings that candidates might organize. Garlands, bouquets, currency chains, shawls etc are prohibited. Covid protocol would be strictly observed through the polling day too.
The term for self-govt committees across the state expires on 11th Nov. All five local body elections since 1995 were conducted in 2 phases unlike 3 now. The first three polls were held in September, the 2010 elections were held in the last week of October and the last polls in early November.
