Kerala local body polls: Counting of votes begins

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 27: Amid tight security, the counting of votes in the local body elections began in Kerala on Wednesday, Oct 27 morning.

Excluding Kozhikode district, the counting began in all of the 216 counting centres across the state. The results are expected to be out by afternoon as electronic voting machines were used for the polling.

The final results, however, will be declared only late in the night, taking into account any delays and the compilation of the outcome from all city corporations and municipalities.

As per initial trends, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) is leading in majority of the panchayats. Opposition Congress-led UDF, however, is also not far behind. It has reportedly won a majority in Kalpetta municipality, besides taking a lead in Palai municipality.

The elections were held in 978 village panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 59 municipalities and 5 city corporations on Oct 23 and Oct 25. The state-wide voter turnout in the two-phase polls was an encouraging 75 per cent.

OneIndia News