By late afternoon, the state's chief election officer, Pramod Jain, said he expected that anywhere between 65 and 70 percent of the 1.5 million voters to have cast their ballots in the crucial first phase.

Turnout in the last elections in 1996 was 54 percent but marred by allegations of rigging in favour of the ruling party, the pro-India National Conference.

This time, voters may have been encouraged by a solemn promise made by India's chief election commissioner, James Michael Lyngdoh, that the elections would be free and fair and that diplomats and journalists would have unrestricted access to any booth and act as "informal observers".

Also encouraging was the fact that nearly 100,000 troops were deployed in the five sensitive districts of Rajouri, Kupwara, Baramulla and Kargil, which are close to the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the state from its Pakistan-controlled portion, called Azad (free) Kashmir by Islamabad.

At many polling booths, voters were seen queuing up patiently to be frisked thoroughly but politely, before being allowed to approach special enclosures with electronic voting machines provided as guarantee against rigging.

Among the voters were women with small children and old men with walking sticks.

But the voting was not without fear. Said Bashir Ahmed, a shopkeeper in the frontier town of Kupwara before the voting began: "I am in a dilemma --if I vote, militants may take revenge on me and my family. If I do not vote, pro-government activists will be angry. I do not have bullet-proof jackets like these politicians."

As the tide of violence grew in recent weeks, local newspapers have been flooded with advertisements by people anxious to announce "disassociation with any poll or political activity".

Locals have removed flags, posters, banners and other campaigning material erected by politicians. Said Mohammed Abdullah, a villager in Baramulla district: " We want to avoid the wrath of both the militants and the military. We want to be neutral to save our people".

Threats by militant groups of instant shootings and reprisals were enough to keep people off the streets and businesses shut Monday here in Srinagar.

Kashmiris' fears had been building up, due to the threat of violence by Pakistan-based militants against those who register or take part in the polls, and the boycott calls by the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) that has several pro-Pakistan parties among its 24 constituent groups.

At least 450 people have been killed in the run-up to the elections since they were announced on Aug. 22.

Army officials claimed to have shot dead 18 militants as they tried to cross over from the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir Sunday night.

Earlier that day, militants tried to assassinate Kashmir's Tourism Minister Sakina Itoo, the state's only woman minister and the youngest candidate at 29 years of age. She survived the ambush by only because her car was bullet-proof.

But two of her police bodyguards died in an hour-long exchange of fire with militants belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (army of the pure).

Her father Wali Mohammed Itoo was a former speaker of the state assembly, whose killing by 'jihadists' forced her to give up medical studies to become a politician "My father died for the cause of the people and for democracy. I will uphold his principles," Itoo said stoically.

Also that day, state law minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone was shot dead at an election rally by a 'jihadist' wearing a 'burqa', a loose garment worn by Muslim women that covers them from head to toe with openings to see through and breathe. Two weeks ago, Abdul Rehman Sheikh, an independent candidate, was also shot dead.

So, the fact that Monday's voting turned out to be largely peaceful, given the level of violence in the state, promoted chief election officer Jain to say that he hoped that the next three phases would be as peaceful.

"There have been stray incidents today including complaints of coercion but if found true we will take strict administrative action," he added.

Apart from regular army troops and paramilitary deployed in the districts that went to polls Monday, some 700,000 Indian soldiers are on guard along the Line of Control to prevent infiltration by militants from Pakistan that India alleges are out to disrupt the elections.

Officials said the army divisions, first deployed after a 'jihadist' attempt in December to blow up Indian parliament, would not be withdrawn until the fourth phase of the staggered elections ends Oct. 8 and perhaps not even after that.

According to officials, at least 26,000 people have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir during the 13 years of separatist insurgency in India's only Muslim-majority state. Separatist groups and rights activists say the casualty figure is closer to 80,000.

India would like to see a good voter turnout to prove the legitimacy of its more than half a century rule in Kashmir. Pakistan would like to be able to say that the vote was a farce in order to establish its own claims to Kashmir.

Having failed to secure the territory in three wars, officials say that Islamabad has resorted to supporting secessionist groups in Kashmir and sending in militants, several of them linked to al Qaeda members.

The vote in Kashmir is also key because India has tied the resumption of diplomatic dialogue with Pakistan, suspended since a 1999 conflict in Kargil in Kashmir, to the peaceful conduct of the elections.

As a result of the boycott called by the APHC, the National Conference is likely to be returned to power in the state, although it is likely to lose several seats to proxies fielded by parties that are keen on contesting the polls but do not want to break the boycott.

Said APHC chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat : "These elections, like the past ones, will not have any impact on the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. We will only take part in an election which will elect the representatives for the resolution of the Kashmir problem."

But National Conference leader and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said he and his partymates who believe in autonomy and democracy for Kashmir within India are "determined to take part in the democratic process or die for our convictions".

Copyright 2002 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by IPS-Inter Press Service. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of IPS-Inter Press Service.

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