India: Kashmir awaits result of first vote in a decade – DW – 10/08/2024
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The election in Kashmir is seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial 2019 decision to revoke the region's semi-autonomous status.

The election in Kashmir is seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial 2019 decision to revoke the region’s semi-autonomous status.

Votes were being counted on Tuesday to decide the makeup of the now largely powerless local government in the India-controlled region of Kashmir for the first time in a decade, and the first time since the Muslim-majority lost its semi-autonomy in 2019.

Almost 9 million people were eligible to vote, with ballots being cast between September 18 and October 1. Official data said that turnout was at 64%.

Kashmir is a contested territory, with both India and Pakistan laying claim to it. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government split the former state into two centrally-governed provinces, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir.

  • @mlgEnglish
    1•1 day ago

    Previous elections in the region have been marked by violence, boycotts and vote-rigging. The BJP was able to come to power in a coalition with a local party following the last election in 2014, but the government collapsed in 2018 before statehood was scrapped.

    Pro-independence militants have been fighting the central government since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris would favor an independent unified territory, or to join Pakistan.

    It was pretty bad in 2019, people were pissed that the local government was kneecapped by a nationalist already publicly known for causing a massacre.

    They also had a (failed) air skirmish with Pakistan and lost a pilot, which they also permanently nuked the media to cover up.