Where Voting Matters: Jammu and Kashmir




The Voting and Elections in Jammu and Kashmir
If there is one place in the world that should be talked about a lot more right now, it's Jammu and Kashmir, which is also known as J&K. Just to give a little information to where Jammu and Kashmir is located in the world, it is a state located in northern India, in the divide between Pakistan and India. It is located mostly in the Himalayan Mountains and shares borders with the states of Himachal, Pradesh, and Punjab to the south. The voting that is currently going on there is more specifically going on in the Indian part of Kashmir, as there are two parts of Kashmir, the Pakistani part and the Indian part, while Jammu is separated entirely from all of Kashmir. The elections for local government body, ULB (urban local bodies), began 2 weeks ago and went from October 8th to October 16th, while the actual counting for these polls ended just 3 days ago, on October 20th and these elections are being held after a gap fo 13 years. The Panchayat elections will begin in Indian Kashmir on November 17th in 9 phases and the last time they were held in the state was 7 years ago, in 2011, and it saw a voter turnout of about 80%. But this time, with the very fragile security situation currently going on, the elections may not prove to be the same this time around. With a few weeks to go before the first phase of the Panchayat voting begins, there is barely any kind of election related activity going on. Furthermore, even before the dates for the poll had been set, the mainstream political parties, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, announced that they would boycott the election over the issue of Article 35A, which is an article that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature to define "native" or "permanent residents" of the state, and provide special rights and privileges to only those groups of people. Yet, the central government is pushing for the upcoming polls and India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh told one news agency that ULB and Panchayat polls in J&K will continue as scheduled. The political skepticism is further boosted by miltants, who have warned people not to participate in elections, or else face the consequences. For example, earlier in April, Riyaz Naikoo, the operational commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest guerilla organization active in Indian Kashmir, threatened to pour acid on those who dared to participate in polls and reiterated in a later video, saying, "We have brought hydrochloric and sulfuric acid for people who are planning to participate in the elections." The authorities then announced the poll dates on September 15th and a day later, several Panchayat buildings were set on fire by unknown persons in South and Central Kashmir. These threats are immediately following the recent upsurge in militant violence, specifically targeting local policemen; for many locals, the combination of these militant threats, the killings of Panchayat members, and the recent militant violence, have ultimately acted as a discouragement toward participating in the voting and elections. Even though these elections have already happened, people did say that against this background of militant threats and calls of boycotting the polls, it would be impossible to the local body elections. 

 Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/kashmirtheforgottenconflict/2011/07/2011731161726482729.html
https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/kashmirs-unwanted-elections/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_conflict
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_35A_of_the_Constitution_of_India

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