November 19, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 20, 1429

SRINAGAR, Nov 18: A fairly good turnout in the first phase of elections in occupied Kashmir may mean pro-independence Kashmiri leaders misread a desire for development and democracy, said analysts and voters on Tuesday, but is not necessarily a vote for Indian rule.

While it is too early to draw firm conclusions from Monday’s first stage in a seven-part election across the disputed region, the turnout in parts of the Kashmir Valley was a surprise for the pro-independence leadership that had called for a boycott.

This year has seen some of the biggest anti-India protests in the valley since an insurgency began in 1989, but voters like 70-year-old Abdul Ahad Bhat said they wanted to cast their ballots even though they had taken part in protest marches.

“Independence is a separate issue from the need for a better life, which a good administration can provide,” he said.

“So there is no contradiction if a Kashmiri votes today and goes out and raises Azadi (freedom) slogans on the streets tomorrow.”

Turnout in the 10 seats contested on Monday across occupied Jammu and Kashmir was said to be 64 per cent. More surprising perhaps was a turnout of 59 per cent in three seats contested in the Kashmir Valley, up from around 55 per cent in the same seats in 2002.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference which had called for a boycott, questioned the official figures and said free and fair voting was impossible in the presence of hundreds of thousands of troops.

But more mainstream political parties appeared to have won some listeners by arguing that the need to choose good government that could build roads and improve civic amenities would not necessarily undermine the independence movement.

“This appealed to the people — for them development still is the immediate need,” said Noor Ahmad Baba, dean of social sciences faculty in Kashmir University.

“They know independence is a higher, time-consuming goal. It means ... the Hurriyat leadership does not have a finger on the pulse of the people.

“Yet this will not undermine the separatist movement because the political parties clearly delineated the freedom struggle from these elections.”—Reuters