Thiruvananthapuram, December 10 (NationPress) The second round of voting for Kerala's local body elections is scheduled for Thursday, impacting seven districts. The State Election Commission has established comprehensive security and oversight measures, particularly at 2,055 identified sensitive polling booths, as stated by an official on Wednesday.

Voting will commence at 7 a.m. and extend until 6 p.m.. This phase includes elections in 604 local self-government institutions across the districts of Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod.

This electoral process encompasses 470 gram panchayats, 77 block panchayats, seven district panchayats, 47 municipalities, and three corporations. A total of 12,391 wards will be participating in this phase.

The electorate for this round is comprised of 1,53,37,176 voters, including 72,46,269 men, 80,90,746 women, and 161 transgender voters. The list also features 3,293 overseas voters.

There are 38,994 candidates contesting in this phase, with 18,974 men and 20,020 women. Specifically, 28,274 candidates are vying for gram panchayat wards, 3,742 from block panchayats, 681 from district panchayats, 5,546 from municipalities, and 751 from corporations.

To facilitate the elections, 18,274 control units and 49,019 ballot units have been prepared, with 2,631 control units and 6,943 ballot units held in reserve. Out of the total polling stations, 2,055 booths have been designated as sensitive.

District-wise, Kannur has the highest number of sensitive booths at 1,025, followed by Malappuram (295), Wayanad (189), Palakkad (180), Kozhikode (166), Kasaragod (119), and Thrissur (81). These polling booths will be under strict security measures, including increased police presence and live webcasting.

Monitoring will be conducted through control rooms situated at district collectorates as well as the State Election Commission headquarters, under the oversight of city police commissioners and district police chiefs.

In Iritty Municipality, located in Kannur district, voting will not occur in five wards where candidates have been elected unopposed.

Additionally, polling has been postponed in the seventh ward of Paiyambra in Muthuthala Panchayat in Malappuram due to the unfortunate passing of a UDF candidate. The Election Commission has issued warnings of severe consequences for any attempts to disrupt the polling process, including unauthorized access to polling locations, crowding, or intimidating voters.

With comprehensive security, continuous monitoring, and collaboration between departments, the Commission aims to conduct the second phase of polling in a peaceful, transparent, and orderly fashion.

The first phase of polling, which took place on Tuesday across seven districts, witnessed a turnout exceeding 70% and was carried out without incident. Vote counting is scheduled for Saturday.