Kashmir to hold first local polls in a decade

AFP | Srinagar, India

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

India’s Jammu and Kashmir will hold local elections for the first time in a decade, the head of the electoral commission said yesterday. "After a long gap, elections are due and will be held in Jammu and Kashmir," chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters in New Delhi.

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.

"Sufficient forces will be there to deal with any eventuality," Kumar said, especially following a surge this year of attacks in the southern Jammu region.

Elections for five seats in India's national parliament were held in June, and Kumar praised them for passing peacefully, with people having chosen the "ballot over bullet and boycott".

The vote saw a 58.6 percent turnout, according to the election commission, a 30-percentage-point jump from the last parliamentary vote in 2019 and the highest in 35 years.