2nd phase of Indian elections ends amid Kashmir lockdown

Asia Kashmir World

Fri 19 Apr 2019:

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Voting in the second phase of India’s general election on Thursday remained largely peaceful amid massive security and a lockdown in parts of the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Indian officials said the turnout was over 60% across 13 Indian states where voting took place.

Kashmiri Muslim separatist leaders who challenge Hindu-majority India’s sovereignty over the disputed region urged a boycott of the vote, calling it an illegitimate exercise under military occupation. Most polling stations in Srinagar appeared deserted, with more police, paramilitary soldiers and election staff than voters. Srinagar was one of 95 constituencies which voted Thursday.

A majority of residents heeded the separatists’ call for a boycott, with only about 8% voter turnout in Srinagar, the urban heart of the anti-India revolt.

Anti-India protests and clashes erupted at several places during the voting, officials said. At least four people were injured when government forces fired bullets, shotguns and tear gas to quell protests by stone-throwing residents.

A Kashmiri woman walks past an anti-election graffiti on the shutters of a shop during the second phase of India’s general elections, in Srinagar, India.

“This is not our vote. Our vote will be on the day we’re allowed to exercise a plebiscite” on Kashmir’s status, said Intizar Ahmed, a young trader in Srinagar. Another resident, Abdul Hamid, said he only voted in the hope that a Kashmiri representative in India’s Parliament will seek a resolution of the disputed region’s status.

Authorities shut down mobile internet service and closed some roads with steel barricades and razor wire as soldiers and police in riot gear patrolled the streets. However, men and women in long queues voted briskly in Kashmir’s Hindu-dominated Udhampur constituency, where turnout was roughly 65%, officials said.

The Indian election is taking place in seven phases over six weeks in the country of 1.3 billion people. Some 900 million people are registered to vote for candidates to fill 543 seats in India’s lower house of Parliament. Voting concludes on May 19 and counting is scheduled for May 23.

Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol a deserted street during the second phase of India’s general elections, in Srinagar, India.

The election, the world’s largest democratic exercise, is seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The campaigning has been marred by accusations, insults and unprecedented use of social media for fake news.

Also voting Thursday was Tamil Nadu state in the south, where tens of thousands lined up to cast their ballots for 37 seats. Voting was postponed for the Vellore seat following the seizure of 110 million ($1.57 million) in unaccounted cash allegedly from the home of a local opposition politician, Kathir Anand.

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