Pakistan-administered Kashmir opens polls in controversial vote | India-Pakistan Conflict News

The first of three rounds of voting took place after weeks of protests in which many people were killed.

Pakistan-ruled Kashmir held elections with high security in the first general elections marred by violence.

Voting began on Monday morning in the first of three elections. Many people have been killed in the run-up to the polls as protests to change the election have turned into violent clashes.

Last week, the electoral commission announced that voting would be split into three phases due to concerns about increased security.

Witnesses said the turnout in Mirpur district, the first polling station, appeared low due to the summer heat. Some candidates complained that the internet bans imposed during the protests and the ensuing clashes had hampered their campaigning.

About 3.8 million people living in Pakistan-controlled territory in the disputed Himalayan region are eligible to vote in an election seen as a test of security. after weeks of conflict between the police and the protesters.

Since the beginning of June, about 40 people have been killed. Authorities have imposed a state of emergency by shutting down mobile and internet services in many areas.

“The internet shutdown has caused problems… for political candidates and the electoral process. Reaching voters has become very difficult,” independent candidate Malik Alauddin told AFP in the run-up to the vote.

Alauddin said he adopted the campaigning style of the pre-Internet generation, which focused on gathering in remote villages and going door-to-door to voters’ homes.

“This is a large mountainous region. If the Internet existed, one social network could reach thousands of voters, but now we have to go to every small village,” he said.

The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), which initiated the protests, was banned by the local government under “anti-terrorism laws” in June.

His demand, which was based on flour powered by cheap electricity, has grown to 38 pointschief among them the cancellation of 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees.

Its leadership has been arrested, has gone underground or continues to organize from the camps of residents in Rawalakot, the headquarters of the Poonch division, who are the initiators of these protests.

JAAC supporters have called for a boycott and say the seats are being used by Pakistan’s main political parties to help the parliament favor those living outside the region.