December 30, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 01,1430

SRINAGAR, Dec 29: Political parties in occupied Kashmir tried to stitch together a coalition on Monday after an election which was seen as a vote for better governance in the disputed region rather than acceptance of Indian rule.

The National Conference, the region’s single largest party, said it would talk to the Congress party, which heads India’s ruling coalition, on a possible alliance. No clear winner emerged at the end of the month-long, seven-phase poll.

“We will formally approach Congress for the formation of the government,” National Conference president Omar Abdullah told journalists.

Abdullah’s party won 28 of the assembly’s 87 seats, the Congress 17, the People’s Democratic Party 21, Bharatiya Janata Party 11 and other parties and independents won 10 seats.

The National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party strongly back greater autonomy for the region to help end a two-decade freedom movement. The Congress party believes Kashmir is an integral part of India.

“The high voter turnout is a clear victory of the large majority who wish the restoration of peace and normalcy,” N.N. Vohra, the governor of occupied Kashmir, said in a statement.

High turnout

Pro-independence Kashmiri leaders saw the high voter turnout as a desire to choose a good government that can build roads and improve civic amenities and did not believe that undermined the freedom movement.

“Undoubtedly people voted, but they voted for water, electricity and employment, not for Indian rule,” senior Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said.

“The freedom struggle will go on until it reaches its logical conclusion.”

Kashmiri leaders say New Delhi uses elections as an endorsement of its occupation over the region.

Kashmir came under New Delhi’s direct rule in July after the incumbent Congress-People’s Democratic Party coalition government fell over a land dispute.

The controversy triggered some of Kashmir’s biggest anti-India protests since the independence movement began in 1989, threatening the success of any Indian government-backed vote.

Kashmiri guerillas have in the past used violence to scupper elections, but this year the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based militant alliance fighting Indian occupation in Kashmir, rejected the use of violence to force a boycott.

In 2002 elections more than 700 people, including politicians and political workers, were killed. This year’s vote was peaceful in comparison.

Overall violence has fallen significantly across the region since India and Pakistan began peace talks in 2004, although New Delhi has imposed a pause in that dialogue after last month’s Mumbai attacks blamed on Pakistan-based militants. —Reuters