Brisk voting for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir for first time after losing autonomy

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Voting for the first phase of a staggered election to choose a local government concluded Wednesday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

Turnout was about 59%, the region’s chief electoral officer said in a statement, as voting was “incident-free and peaceful.”

Authorities had deployed thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers for security in the seven southern districts of the region, which has been roiled by an insurgency against Indian rule for decades. Over 2.3 million residents are eligible to cast their votes to choose 24 lawmakers out of 219 candidates in the first phase of the election.

Wearing riot gear and carrying assault rifles, troops set up checkpoints and patrolled constituencies as long lines of voters stretched around the polling booths.

The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. The process is staggered for logistical reasons and to allow troops to move around to stop potential violence in the Himalayan region.

For the first time, authorities limited access to polling stations for foreign media and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including to The Associated Press, without citing any reason.

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. Most 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 most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces 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 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy, downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory and stripped its separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. It was also divided into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run the territories along unelected bureaucrats and security personnel.

Many people said they knew their votes won’t solve the dispute over Kashmir, but provided a rare window to express their frustration with direct Indian control.

Aamir Ahmed, a first-time voter in Pulwama town, said it was important to elect a local representative “who does not condone wrongdoing.”

“We have witnessed a lot of suffering in the last 10 years,” Ahmed said.

Another voter, 80-year-old farmer Ali Mohammad Alai, said he had been “reduced to penury by the Modi government” after authorities took away his land given to him decades ago for cultivation by the local administration. “All I want is to get that land back,” he said. “Our own government can do that.”

People in the Kashmir Valley had layered rights to use of land since reforms in the 1950s that mainly gave Muslim farmers possession of land they tilled for the minority Hindu rulers and its elite. Some of those rights were rescinded after 2019 changes.

In Kishtwar town, multiple voters said they hoped the polling would culminate in a government that cared about economic development and addressed their main issues. “Be it BJP or some other party or a coalition, we urgently want development and better life. Politics can wait,” said Chander Jeet Sharma, 49.

The multistage election will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a local legislature, called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. A chief minister will head a council of ministers in the government.

However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly as Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator. The elected government will have partial control over areas like education, culture and taxation but not over the police. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.

Multiple local parties have campaigned on promises to fight for reversal of 2019 changes and address other key issues like rising unemployment and inflation in the region where locals have struggled amid curtailed civil liberties particularly after the revocation of the special status.

India’s ruling BJP, however, has vowed to block any move aimed at undoing those changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.

The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. But the government collapsed in 2018, after BJP withdrew from the coalition.

Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.

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Aijaz Hussain, The Associated Press