RESIDENTS of Indian-controlled Kashmir voted today in the second phase of a staggered regional government election amid tight security measures.

About 2.6 million people are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including Srinagar, the main city, where voters started queuing early in the morning outside some polling booths. 

This is the first such election in a decade and also the first since the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. 

What had until then been a state was also downgraded and divided into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run them.

The region has been on edge since then, with civil liberties curbed and the media gagged by Mr Modi’s authoritarian government.

The vote is also the first in over three decades without any boycott call by separatists challenging India’s sovereignty over Kashmir. 

Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India claimed that they represented victory over separatism.

“Our first and foremost issue is restoration of [the region’s] semi-autonomy and statehood. That is why I am voting,” said Srinagar resident Mehraj Ud Din Malik. “Other developmental works will follow as they are our basic rights.”

Except for the BJP, most parties contesting the election have promised to fight to reverse the 2019 changes and address other key issues such as rising unemployment and inflation in the region. 

India’s main opposition Congress party, which is fighting the election in alliance with Kashmir’s National Conference, favours restoring the region’s statehood.

The BJP has vowed to block any attemp to undo those changes but promised to help the region’s economic development.

The third phase of voting is scheduled for October 1, with the results due to be announced on October 8.