As many as 9,016 candidates who had contested the 2020 local body elections have been disqualified by the State Election Commission for failing to furnish details of their election expenses on time.
Candidates who failed to report the details on time and those who exceeded their spending limits had been disqualified for a period of five years from August 23, said SEC chairman A. Shajahan here on Saturday.
During this period, they would be barred from contesting elections to local bodies. As per the rules, those who were members at present would also have to step down from their posts. However, commission officials said the list did not appear to have any sitting members.
The list contained 436 candidates who had contested to corporations and 1,266 candidates to municipalities, 71 candidates who had contested to district panchayats, 590 to block panchayats, and 6,653 to grama panchayats. Their details were uploaded on www.sec.kerala.gov.in, the commission's website.
With 725 names on the list, Thiruvananthapuram district was leading in the number of disqualified candidates, followed by Malappuram (692), Kollam (691), and Ernakulam (626).
A total of 74,899 candidates (38,593 men, 36,305 women and one transgender person) were in the fray for the 2020 local body polls.
As per the rules, election expenditure details should have been submitted to the official concerned within 30 days of the declaration of results. In July, the commission had published a draft list of 9,202 candidates who did not do so. The local body elections were held on December 8, 10, and 14 in 2020 and the results declared on December 16.
After the 2015 local body polls, 8,750 candidates had faced a similar disqualification.
