KANNUR: All preparations for the municipal election in Mattannur, to be held on Tuesday, have been completed, according to election commission officials.Thirty four booths have been set up in the municipality which has 34 wards. Of this, 26 have been marked as sensitive booths, and video cameras have been installed in seven of them.

And armed police from the neighbouring district have also been deployed here to prevent any untoward incident.As per the final voters' list, there are 33,463 voters in the municipality. Of this 17,718 are women and 15,745 are men. There are 103 candidates in the fray, said state election commissioner K Sasidharan Nair.

Polling will begin at 7am and conclude at 5pm. The counting will be held on Wednesday at Mattannur Higher Secondary School. Since electronic machines will be used for voting, counting is expected to be completed in a couple of hours and results announced before noon.

The election here assumes significance because this will be for the first time that the voters' list with photographs of the voters will be used for a local body election.

Also, it is for the first time that the photo identity card has been made mandatory for a local body election. Those who do not have voters' identity cards can produce their passport, driving licence or passbook (with a photograph) of a nationalised bank.

Moreover, from this election onwards, the campaign budget for the candidates (in local body elections) has been raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000.The LDF which is ruling Mattannur municipality is confident of retaining power and increasing its seats.

The UDF, however, feels that public opinion in the backdrop of the killings of Abdul Shukkoor and T P Chandrasekharan is in its favour. Meanwhile, the BJP is also making all efforts to open its account.

In the present municipal council there are 31 seats: LDF - 26 and UDF - 6. However, after the delimitation, there are 34 wards now.