Polling remained peaceful, amid moderate turnout of voters in the by-election to the Areekkad ward of the Kozhikode Corporation on Friday.
The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of V.K.C. Mammed Koya, former Mayor, after he won the election from the Beypore Assembly constituency.
An estimated voter turnout of 74.29 per cent was recorded in the by-poll. This was a decline in voting percentage, as the turnout in the civic body polls held last year was 76.22 per cent. As many as 4,511 out of the 6,072 voters exercised their franchise when the polling ended at 5 p.m.
Voting began smoothly at five polling booths at Areekkad Nallalam ALP School and Areekkad Nallalam AUP ( Devadas) School at 7 a.m. It was 34.21 per cent at 11 a.m.; 43.53 at noon; 50.30 at 1 p.m.; 56.71 at 2 p.m.; 63.14 at 3 p.m., and 69.76 at 4 p.m. The counting of votes will take place at the Town Hall at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The main contestants are T. Moideen Koya of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), V.S. Sayyid Muhammed Shameel, an Independent supported by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), and T. Anil Kumar of the BJP. There are also Independents in the fray.
Mr. Shameel, who was defeated by Mr. Koya of the CPI(M) last time, is now giving a tough fight to the LDF nominee.
The outcome of the by-poll will not have any bearing on the city council where the CPI(M) enjoys a comfortable majority.
However, if the UDF captures the seat, it will be a jolt to the ruling CPI(M) in the corporation as well, as the LDF is in power in the State. The by-election is also a test of the popularity of the new Mayor Thottathil Raveendran, who has initiated some rebellious reforms such as rooting out corruption from the corporation office.
In the civic body election held in 2015, Mr. Koya had secured 1, 848 votes, while Mr. Shameel got 1,646 votes. The BJP had fielded film-maker Ali Akbar, who got 396 votes.
