edited by: nitya thirumalai
Last Update: January 14, 2023, 5:25 pm IST
People walk past the office building of the Election Commission of India in Delhi. (File photo/Reuters)
The machine will enable migrants to vote without reaching polling stations, which is being seen as an important step towards holding elections in the Valley. Invitation for the meeting has been sent to all the parties including PDP and National Conference
There are indications that elections will be held soon in Jammu and Kashmir. Election The commission has invited all parties to Vigyan Bhawan on Monday where they will be given a technical demonstration of the new voting machine.
The machine will enable migrants to vote without reaching polling stations, which is being seen as an important step towards holding elections in the Valley.
The Election Commission, however, has not yet linked the meeting or the demonstration with the assembly elections.
It will be important for the central government to see which parties turn up on Monday as invitations have also been sent to the PDP and the National Conference.
News18 reported this week that elections may be held soon in the union territory.
The final electoral roll of Jammu and Kashmir was published on November 25, paving the way for elections, the first since the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories in 2019.
Assembly elections have not been held in Jammu and Kashmir since the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government in 2018.
Conducting elections in Jammu and Kashmir requires a massive logistical exercise due to the terrain and security situation, with thousands of personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces deployed to ensure peace and free and fair elections. The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir usually lasts for a month.
The voter list was revised after a gap of about three years. This was last done on January 1, 2019, as the qualifying date. After the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370, the voter list could not be updated. Later, the constituencies were redrawn after the delimitation exercise.
After delimitation, the number of assembly seats has increased from 83 to 90, excluding the seats allocated to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
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