Alongside SIR, preparations for 2026 Assembly polls kick off in Kerala

Alongside the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls which is progressing in Kerala, preparations for the 2026 Assembly elections are gathering pace in the new year.

First-level checks on the electronic voting machines (EVM) have begun in the State. On Saturday, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar held a preliminary meeting with District Collectors and District Police Chiefs as part of the preparatory activities.

The first-level checks on EVMs are being conducted in the districts by engineers of Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL). Mr. Kelkar requested political parties to ensure that their representatives are present during the exercise.

Security aspects

“We will now start making arrangements for the conduct of the elections as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India (EC). These include meetings on security-related aspects with the police and meetings with the Central forces. We need to formulate force deployment plans and election management plans,” he said.

The EC had published the draft SIR electoral rolls on December 23. The final rolls are scheduled to be published on February 21. Nevertheless, voters will have the opportunity to add their names to the rolls until the last date of nominations for the elections.

30,400 polling booths

For the 2026 elections, Kerala will have a little over 30,400 polling stations. With the EC setting 1,200 as the limit for voters per polling station, Mr. Kelkar’s office had given approval for 5,030 new stations. But the State may need only 5,003 based on inputs from the District Collectors, Mr. Kelkar said. At present, the EC has 25,468 polling stations in Kerala.

The previous Assembly election in Kerala was held on April 6, 2021. In 2021, Kerala had 40,771 polling stations on account of the EC decision to limit the number of voters to 1,000 per station to prevent overcrowding in view of COVID-19. This decision had required Kerala to come up with 15,730 auxiliary booths.