NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir will be held in three phases and counting will be done on October 4, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced in a press conference on Friday. Voting for J&K elections will be held on September 18, 25 and October 1.
Kumar made a stark observation over the acceptance of elections in the region, saying that the people of J&K “chose ballots over bullets”. In the parliamentary elections held in April and May this year, J&K achieved its highest voter turnout in 35 years, reaching 58.46 per cent.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, there are total 90 Assembly constituencies of which 74 are general, ST are nine and SC constituencies are seven. Talking about the electors data, total 87.09 lakh electors are there is Jammu and Kashmir, 44.46 lakh male voters and 42.62 lakhs female voters are there,” CEC Kumar said.
The EC recently directed the Union Territory administration to transfer officers from their home districts. This practice is standard procedure before elections. The Commission maintains a policy of ensuring that officers involved in conducting elections are not stationed in their home districts or locations where they have served for extended periods. It is common for the poll panel to issue such transfer instructions ahead of both Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
