Srinagar, Sept 25 : Foreign diplomats from at least 15 countries visited the poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir to observe the second phase of Assembly elections on Wednesday. It was the first time India invited foreign diplomats to witness voting in the region, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. However, New Delhi had hosted similar trips on other high-profile occasions and a G20 meeting on tourism there last year.
More than 9 million voters are eligible to choose members for the region’s 90-seat legislature in the three-phase election, the second phase of which was underway on Wednesday.
The visitors included diplomats from embassies of the United States, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and South Korea, among others, news agency Reuters reported citing officials in Srinagar and New Delhi. They visited polling stations across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.
“It is a rare opportunity to come to Kashmir and see the electoral process in action and see democracy. It looks very smooth, everything is very professional,” said Jorgan K Andrews, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy.
Jammu and Kashmir has been at the centre of a dispute with neighbouring Pakistan since partition in 1947. Jammu and Kashmir had a special semi-autonomous status that was revoked by Modi’s government in August 2019. This was the first Assembly elections after the revocation of Article 370.
In the past, terrorists have targeted elections in Kashmir, and voter turnout has been largely weak. The territory, however, recorded its highest turnout in 35 years in national elections held in April and May, with a 58.46% participation rate.
‘It looks very smooth, everything is very professional’, says foreign diplomats after observing J&K elections
