Kerala will need around 5,037 additional polling stations for the 2026 elections to the State Legislative Assembly, as per a revised estimate prepared by election officials.
At present, the Election Commission of India (EC), which manages the elections to the State Assemblies and Parliament, has 25,468 polling stations in Kerala. More polling stations became necessary with the EC deciding to restrict the number of voters per polling station to a maximum of 1,200.
Initially, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) had estimated that the State would require 6,300 to 6,500 additional polling stations. But surveys undertaken at the district level have revised this estimate to about 5,037.
The EC defines a polling station as a “room/hall fixed for holding poll where the electors of the polling area concerned cast their votes on the day of poll. It is also referred to as polling booth.” Earlier, the EC used to allow auxiliary stations when the number of electors in a polling area exceeded the prescribed limit. But a decision had been to taken to do away with the concept of auxiliary polling stations and all new stations will be permanent ones.
The State Election Commission (SEC), which conducted the local body elections in Kerala in two phases on December 9 and December 11, had 33,711 polling stations in all.
‘Uncollectable forms’
The EC is currently in the process of holding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala. The SIR enumeration forms are being distributed to a little over 2.78 crore voters whose names are on the rolls as on October 27, 2025.
The number of enumeration forms on the ‘Uncollectable List’ has risen to 24.92 lakh, according to the office of CEO (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar. This list includes untraceable, permanently shifted/absent and deceased voters. The number of digitised forms has increased to a little over 2.77 crore, Mr. Kelkar’s office said on Sunday. This accounts for 99.71% of the total distributed forms, it said.
Published – December 14, 2025 09:01 pm IST
