Poll preparations intensify in Ernakulam as officials balance SIR and election duties

With less than a week left for polling, the district election office at the civil station in Kakkanad is buzzing with activity. Election-related work began in July, starting with first-level checks of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the office. The process reached a critical stage on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, with the EVMs being commissioned and made ready for the survey. As part of the commissioning efforts, ballot papers were placed in EVMs.

While the district election office has a strength of only six officials, around 30 officials from various departments at the civil station handle election-related responsibilities almost around the clock, officials said.

The initial responsibilities of the election wing included appointing returning officers (ROs) for the 111 local bodies in the district and providing them with necessary training. There are a total of 116 ROs, including one additional officer for each of the three major municipalities and two extra officers for the Kochi Corporation. The renewal of voter rolls was carried out in three stages before the polls, including hearings, handling complaints and revising the rolls.

Polling staff of all local bodies were deployed through e-DROP, a web application developed by the National Informatics Centre. More than 12,000 poll workers will work in 3,021 ballot boxes in the district on election day.

Officials will be busy in the coming days distributing ballots for each station, as well as issuing ballots by mail. While applications for voting by mail will be received at the district office until Wednesday, these applications can be forwarded to the relevant ROs until 17:00 on December 6. Materials, including EVMs, will be distributed from 28 centers designated for the purpose.

The officials’ responsibilities will end only after the votes are counted on December 13. The surveys, which coincided with the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the voter lists, this time increased the workload of the authorities.

Deputy Collector (Elections) Sunil Mathew said, “Revenue officials faced many challenges this time as they were busy with both SIR and election-related work. Despite the stress, poll preparations were carried out flawlessly.”