New Delhi: One cannot wait for an ideal situation to emerge in Jammu & Kashmir to hold elections, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar has said, a day after he announced that elections for the chairpersons of block development councils in the erstwhile state will be held on 24 October.
The announcement to hold elections even as Kashmir remains under a communication lockdown following the scrapping of Article 370, and several political leaders continue to be in detention, has drawn criticism.
Political leaders under house arrest.
No internet, mobile connectivity.
Movement restrictions.
No freedom on actual ground reporting.
Clampdowns continues in large parts.
Uncertainty and fear reigns.
Now: let’s have panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) September 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/nikhil_thatte/status/1178603701730074624?s=20
“There is always an element of risk when it comes to conducting elections in Kashmir…” Kumar said. “But one cannot wait for an ideal situation to emerge.”
Even during the Lok Sabha elections this April-May, there were some apprehensions because media reports said the situation in Kashmir was not conducive to polls, but the exercise was conducted smoothly, Kumar added.
“Elections have to be carried out because development work has to go on,” he said. “The home department has informed the state election commission that any election-related requirement will be met, so there is no reason to worry,” he added.
Moreover, he said, elections to the block development council are not “like a general election”, and only require the panchs and sarpanchs to cast their votes.
“It is a limited electorate,” he added. “Since the elections have been announced, our focus would be to create an ecosystem that is vibrant and conducive for polls.”
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‘EC will take call on J&K assembly elections’
For the 310 blocks — out of which 168 are in the Kashmir valley — that will go to the polls, there will be 26,629 electors.
In the J&K panchayat elections last year, 23,629 panchs and 3,652 sarpanchs were elected. However, elections to several units went uncontested, and over 60 per cent of the panch wards in the Valley remain vacant.
Jammu & Kashmir has been under President’s rule since the coalition government of the BJP and the PDP collapsed last year. On the same day that the central government announced the scrapping of Article 370, the state was divided into two union territories, Jammu & Kashmir as one, and Ladakh as the other.
Under the arrangement, while the former will have a legislature, like Delhi, Ladakh won’t.
Asked when is the earliest that assembly elections for Jammu & Kashmir can be announced, Kumar said, “That is for the EC to decide…We can’t take a call on this.”
While the EC is waiting for some formal communication from the Union Home Ministry regarding elections in the state, it is expected that they will be conducted after the delimitation process is completed, which can take up to a year.
Also Read: 781 scientists, academics urge Modi govt to end Kashmir’s communication lockdown
With the population and the lock up, these elections are a mockery for democracy.
It may have been wiser to announce the schedule only after the restrictions / curbs were lifted and there was a better sense of the public mood. Unclear how candidates will campaign in the prevailing shutdown. 2. There is also no guarantee that people will come out to vote. In droves and droves, as Bibi Netanyahu would have said.