India to oversee Kashmir’s first election in decade

Citizens of Kashmir will elect a 90-member legislative assembly for the first time in 10 years, India’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said Friday. India has controlled the region as a territory since 2019.

Voting will take place in three phases from Sept. 18 through Oct. 1, with counting set to begin Oct. 4, according to India’s Election Commission. About nine million people in the Muslim-majority country are registered to vote, officials said.

Why the 10-year gap? Kashmir became an Indian-controlled state with special status after decades of conflict between Pakistan and India over ownership. At first, India’s constitution gave a chief minister executive power over the region because of its special state status. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, downgrading the country from an Indian state to a region. The decision to strip Kashmir’s status was finalized in December 2023 when India’s Supreme Court rejected all petitions challenging the action. Governing power is assigned to a lieutenant governor appointed by parliament on the advice of India’s president.

How will the local government work? With the fall election, the Kashmir lieutenant governor would have a chief minister and cabinet, all of whom would be responsible to the locally-elected assembly. 

Dig deeper: Read Johanna Huebscher’s report on India banning pro-Palestinian protests in Kashmir last November.