“The biggest achievement for the Election Commission Of India was undoubtedly the high voter turnout recorded for the first time in last three decades.”
The conclusion of incident fee three phase assembly polls is undoubtedly a milestone in the electoral history of Jammu & Kashmir as never ever in the post-1996 scenario the elections were held in less than five phases and the turn out in Kashmir Valley in all the previous elections from 1996 till 2014 was never ever above 50% . The credit for holding incident free elections in just three phases in a short span of just over a month undoubtedly goes to the Election Commission Of India . The coordination and cooperation shown by the election officials, the civil administration and Police besides paramilitaries and army deployed for the election duty was indeed exemplary and as such deserved the compliments they received from none else than the Home Minister of the country Amit Shah and Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. In the first Assembly election since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 the political parties freely campaigned in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. The biggest achievement for the Election Commission Of India was undoubtedly the high voter turnout recorded for the first time in last three decades. The peaceful conduct of assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir is attributed by both the security experts and as well as political observers to stability in the security scenario that resulted in the record tourist influx during last two consecutive years in Kashmir Valley. In fact peace and order maintained by Police in cooperation and coordination with the paramilitaries and armed forces was the result of the level playing field which each every political party besides independent candidates got during the three phase assembly elections.
“The incident free polling and the surge in turn out shows the renewed faith of people of Jammu & Kashmir in democracy. The stakeholders having equally contributed to the restoration of democracy are desperate to see the return of popular rule after a long gape of five years in Jammu & Kashmir and very rightly so.”
For the first time in the post 1996 scenario the leaders of all political parties including former four Chief Ministers travelled to even remotest of the remote areas for campaigning of their party candidates due to which a close contest is likely to show interesting results on October 8 the day fixed for counting of votes across Jammu & Kashmir. Significantly even the areas near the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border remained calm not just on polling day but throughout the campaigning for three phase elections in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division..The incident free polling and the surge in turn out shows the renewed faith of people of Jammu & Kashmir in democracy. The stakeholders having equally contributed to the restoration of democracy are desperate to see the return of popular rule after a long gape of five years in Jammu & Kashmir and very rightly so.
