The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Srinagar

Revolt-hit Indian Kashmir begins voting in state elections Monday amid appeals for a poll boycott by Muslim separatists who have spearheaded a wave of massive pro-freedom protests.

Both rebels and separatist politicians argue elections only strengthen India's sway over the disputed Muslim-majority region and have been urging voters not to turn out at the polls.

"Elections can never be a substitute for our right to self-determination," says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a leading separatist and Muslim cleric in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir where the insurgency has raged since 1989, claiming 43,000 lives.

Nearly 44 percent of eligible voters-considered a healthy level-took part in the 2002 state elections despite militant violence that left 850 people dead, mostly pro-India political workers and leaders.

This time around there has been no pre-poll violence with guerrillas for the first time in nearly 20 years vowing not to use guns to keep voters away.

But anti-India anger is still bubbling in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley since the eruption of vast demonstrations over a government decision to provide land to a Hindu shrine, a decision that was subsequently reversed.

The protests-reminiscent of the early 1990s when the insurgency had just begun-have left nearly 50 Muslims dead since June.

"I won't vote as a mark of protest against the killing of my fellow Muslims," says mason Khurshid Ahmed, 43. "I'll ensure no one in my family votes either."

Indian Kashmir was put under direct federal rule in July following the collapse of the state government over the land row.

Separatists are not contesting the elections, while pro-India parties have been trying to persuade people that voting will only provide a government for the state and will have no bearing on resolving Kashmir's future.

Kashmir is held in part by nuclear-armed India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both nations, which have fought two wars over the region.

The countries began talks to settle Kashmir's future in 2004 but there have been no breakthroughs, further frustrating the mood in Kashmir.

"The elections are in no way linked to resolution of the Kashmir dispute. They're only to elect a government to run the state," says Omar Abdullah, head of the pro-India National Conference.

Voters turfed out the National Conference in 2002 after it had ruled the state for decades, in favour of a coalition of the Congress party, which governs at the national level, and the regional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

"It's not going to be a cakewalk this time. First we'll have to convince people to vote and than motivate them to vote in our favour," says another pro-India leader Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP.

India regards staging polls in Kashmir as enhancing the legitimacy of its rule in its only Muslim-majority state and has traditionally viewed a good turnout as signalling a victory of "the bullet over the ballot."

"The boycott call will have a significant impact in urban areas of the valley but in rural areas the impact will be less," said Tahir Mohiudin, a Kashmir analyst and editor of the influential Urdu weekly, Chattan, or Rock.

"India will definitely sell a good turnout as its victory in Kashmir. A lower turnout would be a major victory for the separatists," he said.

The seven-stage polls to the 87-member assembly are slated to wind up December 24 when Srinagar votes. The staggered voting allows authorities in the heavily militarised state to shift security forces around in a bid to ensure there is no violence during the polling.

Security forces say they are taking no chances, despite the rebels' pledges of non-violence in the state where many favour independence from mainly Hindu, officially secular India or a merger with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

"We're ready for the elections. We'll ensure fair polls," says Kashmir police chief Kuldeep Khuda.

The vote is part of a round of six state polls now underway in India and seen as a mini-referendum on the Congress party ahead of general elections due by May 2009.

te is part of a round of six state polls now underway in India and seen as a mini-referendum on the Congress party ahead of general elections due by May 2009.

Electioneering for the first phase has been going on in Hindu-dominated Jammu in the south and the Buddhist-majority Ladakh region but there has been little poll activity in the valley where three areas vote on Monday.