Kerala Local Polls: 78% Voting Turnout Recorded in Final Phase

Polls are being held to elect new office bearers in 354 local bodies for 6,867 wards.

Image for representation

(File Photo: IANS)

The third and final phase of the civic polls in Kerala was held on Monday, 14 December, in the northern districts of Kerala. Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasargod districts went to the polls on Monday, while the other 10 districts voted on 8 and 10 December.

According to IANS, a total of 78 percent turnout was recorded in the final polls.

The third phase of polls covered 6,867 wards in 354 local bodies across Malappuram, which saw an 78 percent turnout as did Kozhikode, and Kannur and Kasaragod reported 77 percent each.

According to State Election Commission (SEC) V Bhaskaran, there are 89,74,993 voters in the final round, including 42,87,597 men, 46,87,310 women and 86 transgenders, reported Livemint.

A total of 52,285 officers were deployed for the election duty.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also voted at a polling station in Kannur's Pinarayi. Vijayan told the media that they are going to secure a historic win.

“Detractors of us (the Congress and the BJP) have joined together and with the help of Central agencies have been doing their best to discredit us, but, the people of Kerala have been angry and they are going to vote for us and provide us with a historic win.”

IANS quoted Vijayan as saying

The state election commission had instructed poll officials deployed in each booth to ensure that voters did not use pens or other objects to press the button as it could result in technical snags.

The directive was issued after it was found that voters were using pens to press the EVM buttons during the first and second phase of voting. They were doing this to avoid contact with the EVM machine for fear of contracting COVID-19.

In the last polls in 2015, the CPI-M led with around 55 percent of the seats, followed by the Congress led-UDF and the BJP had a mere 1,200 seats.

In the first phase of Kerala local body polls held in five districts last week, a 72.67 percent voter turnout was recorded. A 76.38 percent voter turnout in the second phase.

Votes will be counted on Wednesday, 16 December.

(With inputs from IANS, TNM and Livemint)