Draw of lots for the allocation of reservations in wards ahead of the local body elections in the State will be held from September 28 to October 6 in various centres, State Election Commissioner V. Bhaskaran said on Friday.
The draw of lots in the 941 grama panchayats and 86 municipalities will be held from September 28 to October 1. The exercise will be conducted for the 152 block panchayats and 14 district panchayats on October 5.
The draw will be held in the Kozhikode and Kannur Corporations on September 28; in the Kochi and Thrissur Corporations on September 30 and the Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam Corporations on October 6.
District Collectors will supervise the draws in the three-tier panchayats. The Joint Director, Urban Affairs, will control the exercise in the municipalities, while the Director, Urban Affairs, will oversee the process in corporations.
Reservations in five categories - women, SC women, ST women, SC and ST - have to be finalised through the draws. Reservation for women stands at 50%. The SC/ST reservations are determined on the basis of the population of the two communities.
All wards that were not reserved for women in 2015 will be earmarked for reservation this time.
Wards reserved for SC women, ST women, will be decided from the wards reserved for women. Wards reserved for these two categories will be decided by excluding those wards that were reserved for SC/ST communities in 2010 and 2015.
Lots will be drawn for determining the SC/ST reservation wards after finalising the wards reserved for the women.