Indian-controlled Kashmir holds first vote on local government since loss of autonomy

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Three-stage voting to elect a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir began early Wednesday, the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

Authorities deployed thousands of additional police and paramilitary troops to the region's seven southern districts, where more than 2.3 million residents are eligible to vote, and selected 24 out of a total of 219 candidates in the first phase of voting.

Dressed in combat gear and armed with assault rifles, the soldiers set up checkpoints and patrolled district constituencies while locals lined up in villages and towns to cast their votes.

The second and third phases are scheduled for September 25 and October 1. The process will be staggered to allow troops to move around to prevent possible violence. Votes will be counted on October 8, with results expected that day.

For the first time, authorities restricted foreign media access to polling stations and denied press passes to most journalists working for international media, including The Associated Press, without explanation. Journalists need press passes issued by electoral authorities to travel to a polling precinct to film, photograph or interview voters.

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard as people line up to cast their votes during the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir general election in Kishtwar, India, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Channi Anand

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim ownership of the entire territory. Militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi's rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels' goal of uniting the region either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists that the militant fighting in Kashmir is Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this accusation, and most Kashmiris view the fighting as a legitimate struggle for freedom. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government troops have been killed in the conflict.

The vote is the first in a decade and the first since Modi's Hindu nationalist government in 2019 revoked the Muslim-majority region's partial autonomy, downgrading the former state to a federally governed territory and stripping it of its own constitution and inherited protections for land and jobs. It was also split into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, that are governed directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run the territories alongside unelected bureaucrats and security personnel.

Many people said they knew their voices would not resolve the Kashmir conflict, but that they offered a rare opportunity to express their discontent with direct Indian control.

Aamir Ahmed, who voted for the first time in the city of Pulwama, said it was important to elect a local representative “who will not tolerate misconduct.”

“We have seen a lot of suffering in the last ten years,” Ahmed said.

Another voter, 80-year-old farmer Ali Mohammad Alai, said he had been “thrown into misery by the Modi government” after authorities took away his land, which the local government had given him to cultivate decades ago. “I just want to get this land back,” he said. “Our own government can do that.”

People in the Kashmir Valley have had different land use rights since the reforms in the 1950s, which gave mainly Muslim farmers ownership of land that they cultivated for the Hindu minority and its elite. Some of these rights were abolished after the changes in 2019.

Voter turnout was low early on Wednesday, but as the day progressed, long queues of voters formed outside some polling stations.

In the town of Kishtwar, several voters expressed hope that the elections would result in a government that would take care of economic development and address their key concerns. “Whether it is BJP or any other party or coalition, we desperately want development and a better life. Politics can wait,” said Chander Jeet Sharma, 49.

The multi-stage elections will give Kashmir its own mini-government and local legislature, called an assembly, rather than remaining under the direct rule of New Delhi. A chief minister will head the government's Council of Ministers.

However, there will be only a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government, as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” directly controlled by the Indian federal government, while the Indian Parliament will remain its main law-making body. The elected government will have partial control over areas such as education, culture and taxation, but not over the police. Kashmir's statehood must be restored so that the new government can have the same powers as other Indian states.

Several local parties have promised during the election campaign to fight for a reversal of the 2019 changes and to address other important problems such as rising unemployment and inflation in the region, where people have suffered from restricted civil rights, especially since the abolition of the special status.

However, India's ruling BJP has announced that it will block any attempt to reverse these changes, but has promised to support the region's economic development.

The last parliamentary elections in the region were held in 2014. After that, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party ruled for the first time in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. But the government collapsed in 2018 after the BJP withdrew from the coalition.

Elections in the past have often been marked by violence, boycotts and electoral fraud, even though India has described them as a victory over separatism.

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