Poll booths on lakes, sp provisions for migrants to enhance voting in J&K

The ease of voting for Kashmiri migrants introduced during the recent Lok Sabha polls will be in place for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls as well, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Friday.

He also lauded the democratic spirit of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Talking about the special arrangements made for the Kashmiri migrants during the Lok Sabha polls, Kumar said those relaxations will continue.

"You may also remember that for Kashmiri migrants, special arrangements were made. We simplified the process, we relaxed Form M and there were some cumbersome processes that required authorisation, which were converted to self-attestation," the CEC said at a press conference to announce the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.

"We got positive results and the migrants also participated," he added.

Kumar highlighted that the Union Territory witnessed more than 58 per cent voting during the Lok Sabha polls and this record participation of voters was a testament to Jammu and Kashmir's democratic spirit.

"The long queues at the polling booths of Jammu and Kashmir were an excellent example of the power of democracy. It was their desire to write a new destiny," he said.

"Everybody wanted to participate, prove a point that we are here in this queue not only to vote but to demonstrate the very strong desire that democracy flourishes in this area," the CEC added.

"The people of Jammu and Kashmir chose the ballot instead of bullets and boycotts," he said.

Kumar pointed out that there was no incident of re-polling and an amount of nearly Rs 100 crore was seized.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the Election Commission (EC) had announced that Kashmiri migrants from Jammu and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir would no longer be required to fill up "Form M" to vote as the poll panel had ordered changes to the existing voting scheme for the displaced people.

Instead, they shall be mapped with special polling stations falling in the zones where they are registered or residing, the commission had said.

Earlier, filling up the form was mandatory for the voters displaced from the valley ahead of every parliamentary and Assembly election.

The EC had also eased the process of filling up "Form M" for the Kashmiri migrants staying in Delhi and other places in the country by allowing self-attestation instead of the certification by gazetted officers required earlier.

The Assembly election will be held in Jammu and Kashmir after nearly a decade. It will be held in three phases starting September 18, setting the stage for the people of the Union Territory to elect a government after the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.

To ensure "no voter is left behind" in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission will set up three floating polling stations on the Dal Lake and one along the LoC to "exclusively" serve an area that has 100 per cent ST population.

Announcing the schedule for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the intent to set up these "unique" polling stations was to ensure accessibility in otherwise unreachable areas.

For the three floating polling stations on the Dal Lake, the polling team are taken on ferries and shikaras.

"One of the three polling stations, Khar Mohalla Aabi Karpora, has only three voters," Kumar said.

The Koragbal polling station in the Gurez assembly constituency is situated along the Line of Control (LoC) between Indian and Pakistani territories.

"It exclusively serves a 100 per cent Scheduled Tribe (ST) population. In the Lok Sabha elections, the polling station had recorded a voter turnout of 80.01 per cent," he said.

Seemari is the first polling station in Kupwara district.

"It consistently achieves high voter turnout despite logistical and security challenges," Kumar added.

Assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir after a decade in three phases from September 18, setting the stage for the people of the Union Territory to elect a government after the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019.

The three-phase elections to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be held on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.

While 24 seats will go to the polls in the first phase, elections will be held for 26 and 40 constituencies in the second and third phases, respectively.

The last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in five phases in November-December 2014.

The announcement by the Election Commission comes months after the Supreme Court upheld the Centre's decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir's special status and directed that assembly elections be held by September 30.