Anantnag bypoll: Election Commission cancels voting, says situation is scary in Kashmir Valley

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Monday night cancelled the Lok Sabha bypoll for Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir. The by-election was scheduled to be held on 25 May. According to an EC official, the poll panel in an order issued around midnight rescinded a notification issued earlier on holding the bypoll on 25 May.

Sources said the Election Commission had sought deployment of around 740 companies of paramilitary personnel for the bypoll. The home ministry, however, said it could only provide around 300. A company usually has around 100 troopers.

The state government officials had informed the EC that the situation in South Kashmir “is not good, the overall situation is scary and not very conducive (to the holding of polls),” the EC said in a 10-page order issued late last night. The 10-page order said a fresh date would be announced later.

The three-member commission cited various rules of the Representation of the People Act and the Constitution while rescinding its earlier order for holding polls to the Lok Sabha seat which fell vacant last July after Mehbooba Mufti took over as the chief minister of the state.

The by-election to the Anantnag seat will be held when the situation becomes conducive to a free, fair and peaceful election, it said.

The J-K government had informed the commission that the election needed to be postponed since security agencies wanted to resume operations to counter militancy related activities, it said.

The government had also said these operations would be necessary in the coming months to restore public order and enable elections to be held in a free and fair atmosphere after October this year, the EC said.

The bypoll was earlier scheduled for 12 April but was deferred because of large-scale violence on April 9 when polling was held for the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Eight people were killed and the voter turnout was a record low of a little over seven percent.

The commission also cited various reports from the state government about terrorists “harassing” policemen and their families and generating an environment of “insecurity, fear and chaos”.

The state government believes that the overall law and order situation in the valley, particularly in South Kashmir, is not conducive to the holding of the bypoll, the EC order said.

The commission examined all aspects of the bye-election and found that there had been no “marked improvement” in the law and order situation after April 10, when the EC deferred the by-election.

“On the contrary, these reports reveal a further and continuous deterioration in the situation and the incidents of stone pelting, violence and rioting have rather been on the increase,” the order, which also referred to loss of life, said.

“The apprehension expressed by the Chief Electoral Officer that there may be reluctance on the part of polling personnel to go to polling locations in view of the fear in their minds with regard to their safety and security is also a matter of concern,” the EC said.

Reacting to the order, former J-K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “It’s depressing to see how far we have regressed in Kashmir from the highs of the assembly polls of 2014 to the cancelled election of 2017.