Interim Report of the First Phase
J&K Coalition of Civil Society
J&K State Assembly elections - 16 September 2002
As members of the civil society we were to observe the conduct of the elections for the J&K State Legislative Assembly. The group's terms of reference were: -
1. Use of coercion
2. Interaction with electorate to find out why they participated or abstainedIn this endeavour we formed joint teams comprising of people from Jammu and Kashmir and different parts of India. Four teams - between them - covered two districts and around 100 polling stations. We travelled mostly to the polling booths in the rural areas and some in the towns. While our final report with complete documentary evidence would be made available after the completion of the elections, we are releasing an interim report of the first phase.
The Coalition observed Phase I of the 2002 J& K Assembly elections in the two districts of Baramulla and Kupwara on 16 September. Twenty one volunteers from all over India and J&K divided into 4 groups and toured the two districts for the following constituencies.
1. Pattan, Sopore, Bandipora and Sonawari
2. Sangrama, Baramulla and Rafiabad
3. Kupwara, Handwara and LangateThe Coalition found that contrary to the impression sought to be created by the government there was widespread coercion by the security forces on the people to cast their vote. The main agencies responsible were the Rashtriya Rifles and the Border Security Force, although there were instance involving other para-military forces, along with the renegades. Instances observed by the team are detailed below. It is not clear whether the initiative for coercion came from field commanders at the local level or whether there was pressure from higher levels to push up the voter participation rate. Whatever the case, it is reprehensible that coercion occurred in the face of clear instructions from the Election Commission.
There were a variety of forms of coercion and other malpractices used in the areas visited by our teams. In many instances, announcements were made from the village mosques- at the insistence of the Security Forces - asking people to go and cast their votes. In some cases this was accompanied by implicit and explicit threats. In any case, given the overwhelming presence of the security forces, the fear is palpable. In many areas villagers complained of being instructed at early hours of 16th September, by the Security Force personnel to go and cast their votes. In several polling stations, there were complaints of people being denied their right to vote either because their names were not there in the electoral rolls or because somebody else had already cast his/her vote. There were also instances of women in Burqa (not from the electoral rolls of the locality- as testified by villagers) visiting the polling booth in turns casting vote again and again. In this particular instance the female voters were four times that of male voters and there were no women cops to verify the identity of women voters.
Instances of Coercion
We cite the following instances to illustrate the above:
1. Uchar (Handwara constituency) - Coercion was more frequent in villages off the main roads that remained unvisited by the mainstream media and international observers. An example is the village of Uchar about 2.5 km along a kacha road from the polling station at Magam, Handwara constituency, which personnel of the 24 RR led by a major, accompanied by Ikhwanis, visited early in the morning. Reportedly, they pulled people out of their houses, beat some of them up, and herded them in a large group like "bhed bakris" down to the polling station. The villagers were not willing to vote as in previous elections, but had their ID cards impounded and were told these would not be returned until they had cast their votes. Apparently a fracas then occurred and there was firing in the air. Team 1 reached Magam at about 3 pm and on being stopped by a large number of excited villagers, visited Uchar where they started checking with the few persons left behind in the village, mostly women. Within moments a team of 7 Ikhwanis in full uniform with guns and ammunition belts walked into the village from the opposite direction. Realizing the villagers would no longer be able to talk freely, the team returned to Magam where it tried to contact the 24 RR. It noticed RR personnel walking out of the polling station compound at about 4 pm. One of them told the team to contact the Commanding Officer in Drugmulla, but refused to disclose his own identity (and was wearing no insignia of rank) or to discuss the incident. Uchar residents, who showed the team fresh injuries, begged the team not to report any names since they would have absolutely no redress in the event of a "crackdown" as retaliation for having spoken to the team. Some of them had voted but were still awaiting the return of their ID cards. This is the atmosphere of intimidation in which the election was carried out in a large number of remoter villages.
2. In Ara Mohalla and Bhat Mohalla of the Pattan constituency, at around 9:15 a.m, team members, witnessed RR soldiers knocking at doors, ordering people to come out of their homes and go to the polling booth. On seeing the team the soldiers first ran away, then took positions (as if some attack was happening) and asked the team to leave.
3. In village Ajas, Bandipora constituency, team-3 arrived at 3 p.m. to find to find that personnel of 33 RR had just beaten up two civilians, Mohammad Ashraf Lone and Mustafa Wani, of whom one had sustained a head injury. The team had to take them to the local hospital.
4. In village Kehnusa (first polling booth of the Bandipora constituency where the team arrived at 1 p.m.) the polling officer reported to the team that people went up to him pleading him to put the ink mark on their fingers- so that they could avoid the wrath of the Army personnel - at the same time refusing to vote. In another instance recorded by the team, a BSF officer told the team how he and his troops managed to herd a huge crowd of voters, when a major electronic news channel was visiting the booth.
5. In village Trissa of Sonawari constituency, villagers were waiting for the army personnel at 5 pm on the road side, to show the finger ink evidence of their having cast their votes.
These are only very few of the cases of coercion combined with electoral malpractices performed in the districts which our teams visited.
The Coalition urges all Indians to recognize the complexity and variety of motivations and intentions that lay behind the vote. Most Kashmiris in previous elections exercised their democratic right not to vote. This was to protest the failure of the Government of India to address the demand of the people to decide their own destiny and those who cast their vote did so in order to improve the quality and responsiveness of state and local governance and administration. It would be a grave mistake however to see it as a vindication of policies followed so far. A large number of those who voted told members of the team that they did so with absolutely no prejudice to their respective positions on the way forward to seeking a just solution to the future of Kashmir.
The EC is responsible for the conduct of elections. From time to time the CEC had announced that:
1.The Security Forces are not to coerce people to cast their vote and
2.Armed renegades were prohibited from being present in the areas where polling was to take place.Both these orders of the CEC stand flouted in the First Phase of elections held for the J&K State Assembly.
Vijayan MJ
Convener,
CSI- IndiaMir Hafeezullah
Gen. Secretary,
CCS Kashmir
The following were the members of the Observers' Team for the Ist Phase1. Parvez Imroz
2. Kalpana Sharma
3. Prabhu Ghate
4. Dr. Bashir Ahmed
5. Abdul Rashid Lone
6. Gautam Navlakha
7. Shabir Ibne Yousuf
8. Showkat Masoodi
9. Sajad Hussain
10. Vijayan M.J.
11. Nazir Malik
12. Mir Hafizullah
13. Khurram Parvez
14. Zaheer ud Din
15. Dilafroze Qazi
16. Suhail Azhar
17. G.N. Hagroo
18. Yaseen Malik
19. Indu Prakash Singh