UPDATE - Kashmir to get elected government after 6 years as crucial polls end

UPDATE CHANGES HEADER, DECK

By Hilal Mir

KUPWARA, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - A crucial election that will restore an elected representative government in the Indian-administered Kashmir for the first time in six years concluded on Tuesday.

The third leg of the three-phased election recorded the highest turnout of 65.58%, the Election Commission of India said. This phase had 3.9 million eligible voters for a total of 40 assembly seats across seven districts of the region -- three northern districts of the Kashmir province and four districts of the Jammu province. A total of 415 candidates were in the fray.

The elections have greater significance as they are also the first since India scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special autonomy in August 2019.

From 2018 to Aug. 5, 2019, New Delhi ruled the region directly through a governor who wielded as much authority as an elected government.

It was then made a federally ruled territory and has since been under a lieutenant governor with even more powers, which prompted the region’s top pro-freedom leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, to remark that the “polls lost the significance even before they began.”

The vote will lead to a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, as Jammu and Kashmir will remain a union territory under direct federal control and the Indian parliament will be its top legislature.

The loss of autonomy and the resultant perceived disempowerment were key issues for most of the voters in Kashmir province.

Manzoor Ahmad, a 56-year-old resident of Budpora in Kupwara district, told Anadolu: “Our youth are jobless and 70% reservations in government jobs have further rendered their future bleak. They want to turn this place into a Palestine.”

Many people, especially youngsters, said they see this election also as an opportunity to elect a new crop of representatives more attuned to local aspirations.

“The candidate I am voting for is a Ph.D. He will understand the needs of the educated unemployed youth better. He can better articulate our political aspirations as well,” said Fayaz Ahmad, a resident of Batergam in the same district.

The candidate Fayaz spoke about represents the Awami Ittehad Party of Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, who won election for the Indian parliament this year while being in jail on charges of terror funding.

He was surprisingly granted bail on Sept. 11 to campaign for his party. Jailed since August 2019, his bail ends on Oct. 2, leading his opponents in Kashmir to link him with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Upon his release, he told reporters: “I am committed to fighting for my people. I am coming back to unite people and not divide them... I will fight the prime minister's narrative of Naya Kashmir. I want to bring everlasting peace to Kashmir and prove that Kashmiris are not stone pelters."

But in Langate town, Engineer Rashid’s home turf, not many voters were happy. They told Anadolu that Rashid has made a U-turn on several of his earlier stances, like a demand for plebiscite and aversion to "dynastic politics."

Nearly 9 million people were registered across the region to vote for the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The seats are distributed between the two areas that make up the union territory -- 47 for Kashmir and 43 for Jammu.

The first phase witnessed a turnout of 61.1%, according to the Election Commission of India. The second phase turnout was 56.79%, pulled down by a low turnout of 29.24% in the eight constituencies of the capital Srinagar. Counting of the votes will be held on Oct. 8.