Kerala local body elections on November 02 and 05,2015

After a bitter wrangle with the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) over the conduct of local body polls in Kerala, State Election Commission on Saturday Oct 03,2015 announced that the elections will be held in two phases on November 02 and 05,2015

State Election Commission K. Sasidharan Nair, who announced the election schedule here on Saturday Oct 03,2015 told that -

Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod districts will go to the polls on November 02,2015 and 

Pathanamthitta,Kottayam,Alappuzha,Ernakulam,Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram on November05,2015


The polls would be held in 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 86 municipalities, and 6 corporations.

Poll Schedule

• Date of Filing of Nomination Oct 07,2015 
• Last Date for Making Nominations Oct 14,2015
• Date of Scrutiny of Nominations  Oct 15,2015
• Last Date for withdrawal of candidature Oct 17,2015
• Date of Poll Nov 02(Phase I and Nov 05(Phase II)
• Counting of Nov 07,2015

 

Nominations

Nominations could be filed till October 14. Scrutiny is on October 15.

The last date for withdrawing nominations is October 17. Polling will start at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m.

The commission would set up 35,000 polling booths for elections. As per the latest figures, there are 2.50 crore voters, of which five-lakh are new voters.

The model code of conduct has come into force from Saturday.

EVMs to be used

Single post electronic voting machines would be used in urban local governments and multi-post machines in urban local governments to cast votes for district, block, and grama panchayats.

The commission has banned local governments from publishing advertisements listing their achievements from Saturday.

The District Electoral Officers will monitor the enforcement of the model code of conduct. Since the government has not enforced a total ban on flex boards and banners, the commission would give a direction in the form of a request for using eco-friendly materials for the campaign. The campaign expense in a grama panchayat division should be limited to Rs.10,000, block panchayat division to Rs.30,000, and district panchayat to Rs.60,000.

The campaign expense limit in a municipal ward is Rs. 3,00,000 and Corporation ward Rs. 60,000. Candidates have to file a statement of the campaign expense within one month after the elections. Observers would be deployed for monitoring the campaign and other aspects of the election