Kerala has 75,632 candidates in the fray for the 2025 local body elections to be held in December, according to the final figures on candidates released by the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday.
The scrutiny of nomination papers was held on Saturday. The deadline for the withdrawal of nominations had ended at 3 p.m. on Monday.
Of the total, 39,604 are female candidates and 36,027 are male candidates. There is also one transgender candidate, contesting in Thiruvananthapuram district, according to the official figures.
Kerala goes to the polls in two phases on December 9 and December 11.
Malappuram has the highest number of candidates (8,378), followed by Ernakulam (7,374). Wayanad has the lowest number of candidates (1,967).
The district-wise break-up for the available data is—Kasaragod (2,855), Kannur (5,469), Wayanad (1,967), Kozhikode (6,328), Malappuram (8,378), Palakkad (6,724), Thrissur (7,284), Ernakulam (7,374), Idukki (3,100), Kottayam (5,284), Alappuzha (5,395), Pathanamthitta (3,549), Kollam (5,615), and Thiruvananthapuram (6,310).
In 2020, Kerala had 75,013 candidates contesting in 21,865 wards, according to the commission.
After the scrutiny of the nomination papers on Saturday, the commission had approved the papers of 1,07,211 candidates.
Printing started
Government presses have begun the printing of the postal ballots and the ballot labels that will be pasted on the electronic voting machines (EVM), SEC A. Shajahan said.
The ballots and labels for the grama panchayats, municipalities and Corporations are white in colour. Pink colour ballots and labels will be used for block panchayat elections and sky-blue, for the district panchayats.
Tamil and Kannada ballots
Postal ballots and ballot labels will have the candidates’ names in Tamil in addition to Malayalam in wards with Tamil linguistic minorities in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Palakkad and Wayanad. In wards with Kannada linguistic minorities in Kasaragod, the names will be displayed in Kannada alongside Malayalam.
In all, 2,56,934 officials have been deployed for the local body elections, the commission said.
Published – November 25, 2025 10:15 pm IST
