(18 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pulwama, Indian Controlled Kashmir – 18 September 2024
1. Various of people in queue at a polling station, soldiers standing guard
2. Various of people registering for vote
3. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Hameed Latief Malik, voter:
"We had no representative, and we are thankful to the Election Commission of India for giving us an opportunity after ten years to choose our representative, which will help in the development of our constituency. This time we are choosing an educated representative."
4. SOUNDBITE (Kashmiri) Aamir Ahmed, voter:
"I believe that casting my vote this time is very important. I am voting for the first time. We have witnessed a lot of suffering in the last ten years. We will elect a rightful leader who does not condone wrongdoing. Casting my vote is very important."
5. Various of soldiers standing guard at a polling station
6. People in queue
7. Various of soldiers outside polling station
STORYLINE:
The three-phased election for choosing a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir opened early Wednesday in the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.
Authorities deployed thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers in the region’s seven southern districts where over 2.3 million residents are eligible to cast their votes and chose 24 lawmakers out of 219 candidates in the first phase of the polling.
Wearing riot gears and carrying assault rifles, troops set up checkpoints and patrolled the constituencies in the districts as locals lined up to cast their votes in villages and towns.
The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1 in a process that is staggered to allow troops to move around to stop potential violence.
Votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day.
For the first time, authorities limited access of foreign media to polling stations and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including to The Associated Press, without citing any reason.
Press passes issued by election authorities are mandatory for journalists to travel and film, photograph or interview voters in a polling constituency.
The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in 2019 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy and downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory.
AP video shot by Mehraj Ud Din
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