To ensure “no voter is left behind” in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission will set up three floating polling stations on the Dal Lake and one along the LoC to “exclusively” serve an area that has 100 per cent ST population.
Announcing the schedule for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the intent to set up these “unique” polling stations was to ensure accessibility in otherwise unreachable areas.
For the three floating polling stations on the Dal Lake, the polling team are taken on ferries and shikaras.
“One of the three polling stations, Khar Mohalla Aabi Karpora, has only three voters,” Kumar said.
The Koragbal polling station in the Gurez assembly constituency is situated along the Line of Control (LoC) between Indian and Pakistani territories.
“It exclusively serves a 100 per cent Scheduled Tribe (ST) population. In the Lok Sabha elections, the polling station had recorded a voter turnout of 80.01 per cent,” he said.
Seemari is the first polling station in Kupwara district.
“It consistently achieves high voter turnout despite logistical and security challenges,” Kumar added.
Assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir after a decade in three phases from September 18, setting the stage for the people of the Union Territory to elect a government after the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019.
The three-phase elections to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be held on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.
While 24 seats will go to the polls in the first phase, elections will be held for 26 and 40 constituencies in the second and third phases, respectively.
The last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in five phases in November-December 2014.
The announcement by the Election Commission comes months after the Supreme Court upheld the Centre’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and directed that assembly elections be held by September 30.
