India announces fresh elections in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — India announced Friday that disputed Kashmir will hold a three-phase general election, the first in a decade under a new political landscape after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 stripped the Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomy and downgraded it to a federally controlled territory.

Since these changes, the region has remained in a state of uncertainty, governed by an administrator appointed by New Delhi and run by bureaucrats with no democratic credentials.

The new elections will be held between September 18 and October 1, the Election Commission of India said at a news conference in the capital, New Delhi. Voting will be held in a staggered process that will allow the government to deploy tens of thousands of troops to prevent an outbreak of violence. The votes will be counted on October 4.

A multi-stage voting process will elect a local government — a prime minister, who will be the region’s top official, along with a council of ministers — from among the pro-India parties taking part in the elections.

However, unlike in the past, the local assembly will have little legislative power, with only nominal control over education and culture. The enactment of laws for the region will continue to be the responsibility of the Indian parliament, while political decisions will be made in the capital.

Local politicians demanded the restoration of independence as soon as possible so that full legislative powers could be restored to the local assembly.

Public reaction to this news was mixed.

“We are happy that elections will finally be held,” said Haya Javaid, a resident of Srinagar, the region’s main city.

“It would be great if (the authorities) also announced the restoration of statehood” to the region, said another resident, Malik Zahoor.

Mohit Bhan, a spokesman for the Kashmir People’s Democratic Party, said the announcement was “too little, too late.” He wrote on social media platform X that the region had “been reduced to a commune” that was “once a powerful state with a special status.”

“This is not democracy, it is a mockery. Restoring full statehood should be the first step,” he added.

The 2024 elections will be held in 90 constituencies, excluding Ladakh. In 2022, the Indian government redrawn the constituencies and added four seats to Hindu-dominated Jammu and three to the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.

The last assembly elections were held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party ruled the region for the first time in coalition with the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2018, the BJP withdrew its support for the government and the assembly was dissolved.

A year later, New Delhi divided the region into Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, giving up independence amid months of drastic security and communications lockdowns.

Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, each administering part of the territory but each claiming all of it.

India says the Kashmiri militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the accusations, and most Kashmiris see it as a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Separatist Muslim leaders from Kashmir, who dispute India’s sovereignty over the disputed region, have called in the past for a boycott of the vote, calling it an illegal act under military occupation.