Ease of voting for Kashmiri migrants to continue in J&K Assembly polls: CEC
NEW DELHI: The ease of voting for Kashmiri migrants introduced during the recent Lok Sabha polls will be in place for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls as well, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Friday.
He also lauded the democratic spirit of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Talking about the special arrangements made for the Kashmiri migrants during the Lok Sabha polls, Kumar said those relaxations will continue.
“You may also remember that for Kashmiri migrants, special arrangements were made. We simplified the process, we relaxed Form M and there were some cumbersome processes that required authorisation, which were converted to self-attestation,” the CEC said at a press conference to announce the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.
“We got positive results and the migrants also participated,” he added.
Kumar highlighted that the Union Territory witnessed more than 58 per cent voting during the Lok Sabha polls and this record participation of voters was a testament to Jammu and Kashmir’s democratic spirit.
“The long queues at the polling booths of Jammu and Kashmir were an excellent example of the power of democracy. It was their desire to write a new destiny,” he said.
“Everybody wanted to participate, prove a point that we are here in this queue not only to vote but to demonstrate the very strong desire that democracy flourishes in this area,” the CEC added.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir chose the ballot instead of bullets and boycotts,” he said.
Kumar pointed out that there was no incident of re-polling and an amount of nearly Rs 100 crore was seized.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the Election Commission (EC) had announced that Kashmiri migrants from Jammu and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir would no longer be required to fill up “Form M” to vote as the poll panel had ordered changes to the existing voting scheme for the displaced people.
Instead, they shall be mapped with special polling stations falling in the zones where they are registered or residing, the commission had said.
Earlier, filling up the form was mandatory for the voters displaced from the valley ahead of every parliamentary and Assembly election.
The EC had also eased the process of filling up “Form M” for the Kashmiri migrants staying in Delhi and other places in the country by allowing self-attestation instead of the certification by gazetted officers required earlier.
The Assembly election will be held in Jammu and Kashmir after nearly a decade. It will be held in three phases starting September 18, setting the stage for the people of the Union Territory to elect a government after the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019. (PTI)
