India allowed 15 foreign diplomats to observe the election procedure in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on Wednesday. New Delhi highlighted the first vote in the disputed territory for the first time in a decade.
India took this step to show the world that everything is going in a normal manner. India has invited foreign diplomats to witness vote casting in the region, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped of its partial sovereignty five years ago, though Delhi has hosted such kind of trips on other occasions.
India held a G20 meeting on tourism there last year. According to reports nine million voters are eligible to select members for the region’s 90-seat legislature within the three-phase election, the second one of which becomes underway.
Officials in Srinagar and New Delhi said that the visitors, including diplomats from embassies of the United States, Spain, Singapore, Mexico, and South Korea, among others, visited polling stations across the Muslim-majority IIOJK.
Jorgan K Andrews, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy said that It is a rare opportunity that elections are conducted in Kashmir to promote democracy. He added that It looks very smooth as everything is very professional.
Until 2019, IIOJK had a unique semi-sel-reliant reputation that was revoked through Modi`s Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) authorities which stated that this step would repair normalcy inside the territory and would boost development.
But Modi’s warring parties stated there was no need to call foreign diplomats. Omar Abdullah, leader of the local National Conference party said “When foreign governments comment (on IIOJK), the government of India says this is an internal matter for India, and now suddenly they want foreign observers to come and look at our elections”.
After casting his vote, Abdullah emphasized that the IIOJK elections are an internal matter for them and they do not need their certificate.
In the past voter turnout has been very weak when pro-independence fighters have targeted elections in IIOJK. However, a 58.46% turnout has been recorded in throughout 35 years during national elections held in April and May.
