Indian-administered Kashmir to hold first elections in 10 years

India has announced three-phased assembly elections in the Kashmir region scheduled for next month, the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 stripped the Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomy status. 

The region has remained on edge since it was downgraded to a federally-controlled territory, governed by a New Delhi-appointed administrator and run by bureaucrats with no democratic credentials.

Voting for the region's assembly will be staggered over three stages between September 18 and October 1.

A total of 8.7 million people will be eligible to vote, the commission said.

Ballots from around the region will be counted all at once on October 4, and results are usually announced on the same day.

The multi-stage voting will elect a local government, a chief minister who will serve as the state’s top official with a council of ministers from pro-India parties participating in the elections.

However, contrary to the past, the local assembly will barely have any legislative powers with only nominal control over education and culture.

Protests held in Kashmir against killing of Shia Muslims in Pakistan’s Parachinar

In Kashmir, protests have erupted in response to the ongoing sectarian violence occurring in Pakistan.

Legislating laws for the region will continue to be with India’s parliament while policy decisions will be made in New Delhi.

Local politicians have demanded the earliest restoration of statehood so that full legislative powers could be returned to the local assembly.

The polls will also be the first for the region's assembly in a decade.

The last assembly election was held in 2014 after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled the region in a coalition with Kashmir’s Peoples Democratic Party.

In 2018, the BJP withdrew its support to the government following which the assembly was dissolved.

A year later, New Delhi divided the region into Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir while scrapping its statehood amid a massive security and communications lockdown for months.

Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Each administers part of the territory, but both claim the entire territory.

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