Voting in the final phase of the election to choose a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir began on Tuesday, marking the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago. Over 3.9 million residents are eligible to cast their votes to choose 40 lawmakers out of 415 candidates in the region's seven districts during the third and last phase of the election.
This election is significant as it is the first such vote in a decade and the first since Modi's government revoked the Muslim-majority region's semi-autonomy in 2019. This move led to the division of the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, both ruled directly by New Delhi through appointed administrators and unelected bureaucrats.
