Election Commission of India (ECI) has revised the poll timings for Anantnag Parliamentary constituency by two hours. The timings were rescheduled after Jammu and Kashmir Police requested the ECI to close the polling by 4 pm to avoid law and order problems.
Citing that “troublemakers” take advantage of darkness dueto polls stretching till evening the J&K police wrote to the ECI to preponethe closure time.
The ECI issued a notification on Friday evening stating:”The polling time in all the polling stations, for the Anantnag parliamentaryconstituency has been fixed from 7am to 4 pm instead of 7am to 6 pm.”
“The Commission has amended the timings after consideringthe reports of the state government, district administration and Police andtaking into account all material circumstances including law and ordersituation,” the notification stated.
Polls in Anantnag Parliamentary constituency would be heldin three phases with district Anantnag going to polls on 23 April, Kulgam on 29April and Shopian and Pulwama districts on 6 May, 2019.
A senior police official said that stretching polling till 6pm was “turning out to be a headache” for security agencies in Kashmir.”Miscreants used take advantage of darkness and create law and order problemsin the evening. They used to pelt stones on polling parties and security forcesreturning from poll duties,” he said.
A senior official in the civil administration said, “Hardlyanybody turns up to vote after 4 pm in Kashmir. The early closure of pollingwould also avoid confrontation between security forces and civilians involatile areas. A 13-year old boy was killed during the first phase of LokSabha polls in Langate area of Kupwara after clashes broke out in the eveningbetween youth and security forces retreating from the poll duty,” he said.