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SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Under elaborate security, residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir began casting votes Wednesday in the second phase of a staggered election for a local government, which for the first time in decades is not boycotted by separatists.
It's the first vote since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.
“Our first and foremost issue is restoration of (the region’s) semi-autonomy and statehood. That is why I am voting,” said Mehraj Ud Din Malik, a voter in Srinagar. “Other developmental works will follow as they are our basic rights.”
The former state was downgraded and divided into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run them along unelected bureaucrats and security setup. The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.
About 2.6 million residents are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including in the biggest regional city of Srinagar, where voters lined outside polling booths since early morning. Turnout by 1 p.m. was about 37%, the region's chief electoral officer said.
For the first time in decades, separatists who challenge new Delhi's rule over Kashmir are not boycotting the vote. Instead, some lower-ranking activists, who in the past dismissed polls as illegitimate under military occupation, are running for office as independent candidates. Polls in the past have been marred by violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
Except for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, most parties contesting the election have campaigned on promises to reverse the 2019 changes and address key issues like rising unemployment and inflation. India’s main opposition, the Congress party, which is running in alliance with Kashmir’s National Conference, also favors restorating the region’s statehood.
The BJP has vowed to block any move aimed at undoing those changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.
Authorities erected checkpoints and laid razor wire in the voting districts as government forces wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles patrolled the constituencies.
The third phase is scheduled for Oct. 1 and votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day. Voting began Sept. 18 with about 59% turnout. There were no major incidents reported.
Authorities have limited access of foreign media to polling stations and denied press credentials to most of the region's journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason.
On Wednesday, the Indian External Affairs Ministry took over a dozen foreign diplomats from New Delhi to visit polling stations in the Srinagar and Budgam districts.
A Singaporean diplomat, Alice Cheng, was quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency as being surprised at access provided to them. “Even in Delhi, because of regulations, we would not typically walk into a polling station to see how people vote,” she said, according to PTI.
Omar Abdullah, the region’s former top elected official and the leader of the National Conference, criticized the visit, saying that the diplomats were “guided tourists.”
“When foreign governments comment, then the government of India says this is an internal matter for India. Now suddenly they want foreign observers to come and look at our elections,” Abdullah told reporters after casting his vote in Srinagar. He added that people’s participation in the polls was “in spite of everything that the government of India did” in the region.
“They have humiliated people, they have used all the machinery of the government to detain and harass people,” Abdullah said. “So, this is not something the government of India should be highlighting.”
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
The multistage election will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a local legislature, called an assembly, rather than being directly under New Delhi’s rule. However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly as Kashmir will remain a “Union Territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
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