Turnout approached 50 percent in the second phase of voting in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, as the election proceeds alongside a boycott call, deadly clashes and continuing rights demands.
Geopolitics··Evening
Turnout approached 50 percent in the second phase
The assembly election in Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir is being held in three phases. The first took place on July 27, the second was held on Sunday and the final phase is scheduled for August 10. Election officials put turnout in the second phase at nearly 50 percent, compared with 46 percent in the first. Both figures are below the participation of more than 60 percent reported in the 2016 and 2021 elections. Preliminary results gave the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz 14 of the 18 seats declared and the Pakistan People's Party four. Chief Election Commissioner Ghulam Mustafa Mughal is overseeing the process. Voting is taking place after protests and deadly clashes that have continued since June. The banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee called for a boycott, and its leaders declined to stand as candidates. The reported turnout therefore comes from an election environment that includes both people choosing among candidates and an organized movement urging residents not to participate. With one phase still to come, the current figures describe a process under way rather than a completed result for the assembly or a final measure of participation across the territory.[1]
The Rawalakot protests centre on rights and implementation demands
The BBC said it became the first news organization to reach Rawalakot, the centre of the protests in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In a region of about 4.5 million people, the Joint Awami Action Committee is demanding affordable flour, electricity and basic rights; it says an arrangement signed with the Pakistani and regional governments in October has not been implemented. The regional government says the group is armed and intends to disrupt the polls. The committee was banned in June and labelled a foreign-funded terrorist organization, a description it rejects. A doctor whose name was changed said he had treated 50 to 60 critically injured people since July 27, including 15 to 20 with gunshot wounds. The regional government rejected allegations that security forces fired indiscriminately on peaceful protesters and said officers acted against people who attacked them or obstructed lawful authority. At the protests it attended, the BBC team said it saw no weapons or shooting and could not identify the source of gunfire heard overnight. The competing accounts leave responsibility for the violence disputed. They also place an unresolved implementation argument over food, electricity and rights alongside the election timetable rather than outside it.[2]
Voting continues without an official total for the deaths
The election report and the BBC's access from Rawalakot show two sides of the same continuing process. Al Jazeera cited residents and rights groups reporting more than 50 deaths, including at least seven members of law enforcement; the action committee says more than 60 civilians have been killed since June. The government has published no official death toll. The BBC saw that most shops in the city were shut, food was scarce and some roads were blocked by felled trees. Authorities said the committee had blocked the roads and denied preventing food or medical supplies from entering. The committee connects its protests to the failure to implement the October arrangement. Under these conditions, two phases of the election have been completed and the August 10 date remains in place for the third. The published turnout figures describe the ballot process, while the reports of clashes and disrupted daily life describe the environment in which voting is taking place. Neither source says the election has stopped. Together they show political participation occurring through voting, boycott and protest at the same time, with the authorities and the committee disputing both responsibility for violence and the status of earlier commitments.[1], [2]
