2025 Kerala local body polls: Political fronts wait with bated breath as counting of votes set to begin

2025 Kerala local body polls: Political fronts wait with bated breath as counting of votes set to begin

Tight security outside EVM strong room at Mar Ivanios Vidyanagar campus in Thiruvananthapuram.
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

Major political fronts, parties and voters in Kerala wait with bated breath for the results of the 2025 local body elections in the State as the counting of the votes polled in two phases earlier this week is set to kick off at 8 a.m. today (December 13).

The initial trends are expected to start coming in by 8.30 a.m. The full results are expected to be declared by Saturday afternoon, according to the State Election Commission (SEC). The updates can be accessed on the ‘Trend’ website maintained by the SEC:

https://trend.sec.kerala.gov.in, https://lbtrend.kerala.gov.in, https://trend.kerala.nic.in.

Strong rooms where the electronic voting machines (EVM) are kept are being opened at the time of filing this report.

The SEC has arranged 244 counting centres across the State. The postal ballots polled in the district panchayats will be counted at the District Collectorates. The counting will begin after making sure that the seals and tags on the control units of the electronic voting machines (EVM) are intact in the presence of the candidates or the counting/election agents, the SEC said.

In the previous elections held in 2020, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) had maintained a clear upper hand in the three-tier panchayats. It had also won 44 of the 87 municipalities (including Mattannur in Kannur where elections were held in 2022), five of the six corporations, over 500 of the grama panchayats, 11 of the 14 district panchayats and over 100 of the 152 block panchayats.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are hoping to increase heir tally this time. That the local body elections have come just a few months before the 2026 elections to the Kerala Assembly increase their political significance.

The 2025 local body elections were held in Kerala in two phases on December 9 and 11. The combined voter turnout in the two phases had stood at 73.69% with 2,10,79,609 crore of the total 2,86,07,658 voters in Kerala’s 14 districts exercising their franchise.

The 2025 elections were held to 23,573 wards in 1199 local bodies including the three-tier panchayats, municipalities and corporations. The SEC had postponed elections to three wards where candidates had died during the campaigning phase. The 1199 local bodies include 941 grama panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 86 municipalities (Mattannur municipality will see elections in 2027) and six Corporations.

Published – December 13, 2025 07:19 am IST

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