The Hindu : Observers laud conduct of J&K Assembly elections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 10, 2002

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National

Observers laud conduct of J&K Assembly elections

By Anjali Mody

NEW DELHI OCT. 9. Independent observers of the Jammu and Kashmir election are all praise for the Election Commission and the people of Kashmir. The elections, according to two reports released in New Delhi today, were extremely well managed despite the difficult circumstances and the people of Kashmir had put aside very real fears to come out to vote.

The report, Jammu and Kashmir Elections 2002: How Free, How Fair, by a 22-member multi-national team from the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra, Dehradun, remarking on voter enthusiasm, also pointed out that there were very wide variations in turnout, ranging from nearly zero in some places to 79 per cent in others.

A significant cause for this, the report said, was the boycott in parts of the valley. "Such a large-scale boycott is highly significant and should neither be ignored nor overlooked. Neither should those who boycotted the elections be considered anti-national.''

The report by the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, `Fair Elections Under the Shadow of Fear', said while the election was fair it was "not necessarily free", with violence and terror being real factors affecting the election outcome. George Mathew of ISS said the election endorsed the importance of the democratic process, but cautioned against "taking this election as a plebiscite''.

Both reports, while endorsing the Election Commission's good work said incomplete and incorrect electoral rolls were one of the shortcomings, as was the absence of women police officers to verify the identity of women in burqas, who have traditionally been used in Kashmir to impersonate real voters.

Both reports also noted that, while electronic voting machines made the election more transparent, voters in some places and polling officials had not received adequate training in the use of the machine.

The ISS report said this forced many voters to take the help of the election officials, thus making a mockery of the `secret ballot'.

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