Indian-administered Kashmir to hold first regional elections in a decade

Voters queue outside a polling station in Srinagar, in India-administered Kashmir, in 2019. AP

India-administered Jammu and Kashmir will hold local elections for the first time in a decade, the country's election commission announced on Friday.

The vote for the legislative assembly will take place from September 18 to October 1, with ballots to be counted on October 4.

The disputed Muslim-majority region is divided between India and Pakistan since the subcontinent gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947 and both nations claim it in its entirety.

An armed rebellion against New Delhi has been waged since late 1980s, with tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians killed in the conflict, amid regular poll boycott campaigns by separatists.

The last local election in the region was held in December 2014, with the popular government stepping down in 2018 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party pulled out of an alliance with a local party.

The region has been devoid of an elected government since 2018 and was brought under federal rule by Mr Modi’s government.

But Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in a shock decision in August 2019 stripped the disputed territory of its limited autonomy, downgrading and dividing the state into federally administered regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

“We have seen long queues of people in Jammu and Kashmir during Lok Sabha polls, which showed they want to be part of the democratic process and preferred ballot over the bullet,” said election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, at the briefing on Friday.

A total of 8.7 million voters, around 4.5 million lakh males and 4.2 million females will exercise their right to franchise in these polls, Mr Kumar said, adding the polls will take place in the 90 assembly constituencies in three phases.

The elections will take place after the delimitation process – redrawing boundaries for assembly constituencies depending on religious voter share—in Hindu-dominated Jammu region and Muslim-dominated Kashmir.

The new government will have decision-making powers only limited to region's civic affairs and administration public, with Mr Modi’s government having absolute powers on the federal territory's law and order.