Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir): Voting for the 5th Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil elections began amid tight security arrangements on Wednesday morning, sources said. Over 11 percent voting was recorded till 9 am. The LAHDC Kargil election is the first democratic exercise in the union territory of Ladakh post its split from the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir way back in August 2019.
On Aug 5, 2019, the BJP government at the Centre abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to the Jammu and Kashmir under the Constitution and bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Deuty Commissioner, Kargil Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, said that the polling is being conducted at a total of 278 polling booths for which all the arrangements have been made.
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"Today is the polling day of LAHDC elections. The mock poll process is being conducted at polling stations. We have a total of 278 polling stations. Police arrangements have been made to carry out free and fair elections. Out of the 278 stations, 114 are hyper-sensitive and 99 are sensitive polling stations. Police deployments have been done accordingly," the Deputy Commissioner Kargil said.
An official said that the oldest voter from Kargil Town Haji Ghulam Mohd reached poling station early morning to cast his vote and urged upon youths to take part in election process to elect the right candidate for a better democracy. Ahead of the voting, the district administration Kargil issued an advisory asking voters as well as candidates/polling agents that mobile phones will not be permitted inside polling booths.
