Counting under way for Kerala local bodies polls
By IANSWednesday, October 27, 2010
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Counting of votes in the Kerala local bodies elections was under way Wednesday, with poll officials saying the Congress-led opposition was ahead of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in municipalities and corporations.
UDF, which was wiped out in the 2005 polls, has already won in the Kochi corporation. It is leading in the Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram corporations.
At the Kollam corporation, the LDF is all set to return to power and the counting for the Kozhikode corporation will be done Oct 31. During the last polls, all the five corporations in the state were with the LDF.
In the municipalities, UDF is leading in 28 while LDF is ahead in 22, a poll official said.
The results of districts, block and gram panchayats will be out by late evening.
The first and second phase of polls were held Oct 23 and Oct 25 respectively.
LDF was in power in 11 of the 14 district panchayats, 33 of 53 municipalities, 114 of 152 block panchayats and 688 of 984 gram panchayats.
Electronic voting machines were used only in corporations and municipalities, while traditional ballot papers was used in the gram, block and district panchayat elections.
