Final election phase begins in Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Voters went to the polls Monday in the final phase of elections for the legislative assembly in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, following weeks of violent protests and clashes with security forces that overshadowed campaigning in the disputed Himalayan region, officials said.

Men and women began lining up early at polling stations in Poonch district in the disputed Himalayan region, where four assembly seats were being contested.

Raja Shakeel, a spokesperson for the regional election commission, said voting was underway in four constituencies despite a boycott call by the outlawed Joint Awami Action Committee, or JAAC, which had urged residents not to participate in the election.

Pakistan’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party has already secured a majority and is expected to form the regional government for the first time in a decade after winning 24 of the 34 seats decided in the first two phases of voting.

Security was tightened around polling stations as voters cast ballots to choose their representatives in Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India.

Both countries claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

A female voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the first phase of voting for the local legislature in Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. File/AFP

Several high-profile politicians are competing in the latest round of voting. Regional Prime Minister Faisal Rathore is seeking a seat from Haveli, while former Prime Ministers Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan and Mushtaq Minhas, a senior vice president of the PML-N, are also among the candidates.

Rana Sanaullah, a political affairs adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, predicted the PML-N would secure a two-thirds majority and form the next government in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

A PML-N victory would return the party to power in Pakistan-administered Kashmir after a decade.

Election officials say voting for seats yet to be decided is being conducted in phases because of security concerns and the electoral process is expected to be completed this month. Newly elected lawmakers will then be sworn in and choose the region’s next prime minister.

The election campaign has been overshadowed by weeks of protests led by the JAAC, which has urged residents to boycott the vote. The regional government recently banned the group, citing security and public-order concerns.

The dispute between the JAAC and the regional government centers on 12 legislative seats reserved for people displaced from Indian-controlled Kashmir since the end of British colonial rule. The JAAC argues that the arrangement gives disproportionate political influence to people living outside Pakistan-administered Kashmir and has demanded the seats be abolished.

The seats were created to provide political representation to people displaced from Indian-controlled Kashmir who settled elsewhere in Pakistan because Pakistan-administered Kashmir lacked the capacity to accommodate them.

The JAAC, formed in 2023, has demanded greater political rights for people in Kashmir and the government says it accepted 36 of the group’s 38 demands and maintains that the dispute over the reserved seats can be resolved only by the regional assembly.

Associated Press