The 2026 Kerala Assembly elections have begun counting votes, with a multi-cornered contest involving the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), United Democratic Front (UDF), and National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
With 140 counting centres across 43 locations, 15,464 personnel have been deployed for the exercise, including 140 returning officers, 1,340 additional returning officers, 4,208 micro observers, 4,208 counting supervisors, and 5,563 counting assistants.
Postal ballots, accounting for 1.36% of total votes, were counted first, followed by votes polled in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from 14 polling stations per round.
The Election Commission officials will count VVPAT slips in cases of discrepancies between EVM votes and booth figures.
