The heads and deputy heads of the local bodies will be elected on December 26 and December 27, the State Election Commission said on Tuesday (December 16).
The chairpersons and Mayors of municipalities and corporations, respectively, will be elected at 10.30 a.m. on December 26. Deputy chairpersons of municipalities and Deputy Mayors of Corporations will be elected at 2.30 p.m. on the same day.
The presidents of grama, block and district panchayats will be elected at 10.30 a.m. on December 27. Vice-presidents will be elected on the same day at 2.30 p.m. In the case of Corporations and district panchayats, the District Collectors are the Returning Officers. In the grama and block panchayats, the Returning Officers concerned are the nominated officials. Returning Officers have been specially assigned for municipalities.
One member/councillor has to propose a candidate and another member has to second it. If the nominated member is not present, his written consent has to be produced. A member cannot propose or second multiple nominees. The name of a member who is contesting to a reserved post need not be proposed or seconded.
If there are multiple contestants for a post, the election will be held via open ballot. Members who cast their votes are required to enter their names and affix their signatures at the back of the ballot. If there is only one candidate, he or she will be declared elected without voting.
The quorum of the election meeting is at least half of the elected members of the local body concerned. If the quorum is not met, the election will be put off to another working day. In this case, it will not be insisted that the quorum is met.
If there are only two candidates, then the person who has secured more votes would be declared elected. In the event of both candidates securing an equal number of valid votes, the winner will be declared through a draw of lots. The person whose name is drawn first will be declared elected.
If there are more than two candidates, the process is a little more complex. If one of the contestants secure more votes than the other two combined, he/she will be declared elected. If no contestant secures that many votes, the contestant who secures the least votes will be removed and the election continued. This process will continue until a candidate secures more votes than the all others combined.
If there are three or more candidates and the lowest votes are secured equally by two or more candidates, a draw of lots will be held and the person whose name is drawn will be eliminated.
Elected members/councillors who have not taken the oath or affirmation are not eligible to vote.
Members/councilors are required to cast their vote by marking an ‘x’ against the candidate of their choice. After writing their own name and affixing the signature, the members should put the ballot in the box/tray kept near the Returning Officer.
If the elections are held in multiple phases, ballots of different colours will be used in each phase.
Once the elections are over, Mayors, chairpersons, presidents will take the oath before the Returning Officer. Deputy Mayors, vice-chairpersons and vice-presidents will take the oath respectively before the mayors, chairpersons and presidents.
The SEC had announced that newly-elected members and councillors of local bodies will take the oath or affirmation on December 21.
The members of the Wandoor block panchayat will take the oath on December 22. The five-year-term of this block panchayat does not get completed on December 20. The members of the Chokkad grama panchayat will take the oath on December 26. The presidents and vice-presidents in these local bodies will be elected on December 31.
