: All arrangements have been made for the local civic body elections to be held in the district on Thursday. Nearly 29 lakh voters will go to the polling booth to elect 2,512 councillors in the three-tier panchayats and municipalities in the district.
District collector T. Bhaskaran said here on Tuesday that as many as 27 centres have been set up to distribute polling materials. Those centres will become the counting centres after the elections. As many as 3,911 polling stations have been set up for the elections to the 94 grama panchayats, 12 municipalities, 15 block panchayats and the district panchayat.
The district administration has appointed 15,644 officials for poll duty. As many as 1,715 personnel are kept in reserve. There will be one presiding officer and three polling officers in each booth. Polling will begin at 7 a.m. and will go on till 5 p.m. Voters reaching the polling booth before 5 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
As many as 10,774 ballot units will be used for polling. There will be three ballot units for the three-tier district-block-grama panchayats. However, there will be only one ballot unit in municipal areas.
Out of the 29.06 lakh voters in the district, 14.80 lakh are women.When 23.86 lakh voters are in grama panchayats, 5.2 lakh are in municipalities. The counting will take place on Saturday. As many as 28 counting centres, including the Collectorate for District Panchayat postal ballot, have been arranged.Out of the 3,911 polling stations, 3,431 are in grama panchayatsand 480 in municipalities. Mr. Bhaskaran said that stern action would be initiated against officials who fail to attend poll duty.As many as 8,624 candidates, including 4,128 women, are in the fray in Malappuram district. When 6,143 of them are in grama panchayats, 1,529 are in municipalities. As many as 801 candidates are contesting to 15 block panchayats and 151 to the District Panchayat.This will be the first local body elections using multi-post electronic voting machines.
As many as 7,772 security personnel have been deployed across the district for the elections. One company of the police from Karnataka has reached the district for the polls.
Apart from the police, officers of the Excise, Motor Vehicle Department, and Forest Department will be on duty. About 4,000 police personnel deployed here are from outside the district.
As many as 335 booths have been identified as sensitive. Most of them are in the Nilambur forest region and along the coast of Tirur and Tanur. Special force will be deployed in places such as Areekode, Manjeri, Vazhakkad, Vengara, Tirurangadi, Kottakkal, Kalpakancheri, Parappanangadi, Ponnani, Changaramkulam and Perumpadappu, where fierce “friendly fights” are on between the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League.
