Elections in Kerala are regularly held to fill government officials at all levels of government in both Kerala and India as a whole. These range from national elections to regional local body or panchayat elections. The Assembly of Kerala creates laws regarding the conduct of local body elections unilaterally while any changes by the state legislature to the conduct of state level elections need to be approved by the Parliament of India. In addition, the state legislature may be dismissed by the Parliament according to Article 356 of the Indian Constitution and President's rule may be imposed.
Panchayat Elections is a term widely used in Kerala, India, for the polls that are held to select the Local Self-government Representatives. There are three branches of local self-government institutions in Kerala. They are Graman Panchayat which can be translated as Village Government, Block Panchayat and District Panchayat. A Grama Panchayat is almost an equivalent to City administration and District Panchayat to a County. There are two more wings namely Municipality which is another form of Block Panchayat that exists only in major towns and Corporations that come only in six major cities.
The State has 978 Grama Panchayats, 152 Block Panchayats, 14 District Panchayats, 60 Municipalities and 6 Corporations. Consequent to the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, the local self-government institutions are to function as the third tier of government. In Kerala, LSGIs have been meaningfully empowered through massive transfer of resources as well as administrative powers. Coupled with a grassroots level approach of participatory planning whereby the developmental programmes are identified and implemented through Grama Sabhas, the LSGIs have emerged as effective agencies for the implementation of developmental programmes.State Election Commission, Kerala came into existence on 3 December 1993 as envisaged in Article 243 of the Constitution of India. The superintendence, direction and control of preparation of voters list and conduct of election to the local self-government Institution vest with the Commission.
Dates
The last Election to the Local Self-government Institutions in Kerala was held in October 2015. Elections to the local bodies were held in two stages.The results for all were October. The latest Assembly elections were held on 16 May 2016.
