Kerala local body polls to be held in two phases on December 9 and 11

The Kerala State Election Commission on Monday announced that the 2025 local body elections will be held in two phases on December 9 and December 11 across the State.

Polling will be held on December 9 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki, Alappuzha, and Ernakulam, while Thrissur, Malappuram, Wayanad, Palakkad, Kannur, Kasaragod, and Kozhikode will vote on December 11. Counting of votes will take place on December 13 from 8 a.m. at multiple counting centres across Kerala.

Nominations can be filed till November 21, with scrutiny scheduled for November 22 and withdrawal allowed till November 24. Polling will take place from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a mock poll to be held one hour before the start.

Elections will be conducted for 1,199 of Keralas 1,200 local bodies, as polls in the Mattannur municipality in Kannur will be held only in September 2027. Following delimitation, the total number of wards stands at 23,612, of which 23,576 wards will go to polls this year. These include 17,337 wards in grama panchayats, 2,267 in block panchayats, 346 in district panchayats, 3,205 in municipalities, and 421 in Corporations.

The Commission has completed first-level checks on 1,37,922 ballot units and 50,693 control units in preparation for the elections. Kerala has over 2.84 crore registered voters, with the final supplementary list to be published on November 14.

The upcoming local body polls coincide with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters roll being conducted by the Election Commission of India ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. The State government and political parties, including the CPI(M) and the Congress, had objected to the timing of the SIR, citing possible confusion and administrative overlap with local poll preparations.

In the 2020 local body elections, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) had secured a clear edge over the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The upcoming polls will be closely watched as a political indicator ahead of the 2026 State elections.

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