Published: 04:47 PM, 25 September 2026 Last Update: 05:08 PM, 25 September 2026
Ballots under barrels: How Electoral Freedom Snatched Away in PoJK
The legislative elections that took place in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from 27 July to 10 August 2026 were held under a curfew, with communications cut off and amid the presence of Pakistani security forces who had been deployed to prevent the population from voting. Seven weeks before the election, Islamabad designated the region’s largest grassroots political organisation as a “terrorist group,” imprisoned or offered bounties to its leaders, severed mobile and internet services over most of the area, and then used the situation as proof of democratic normality. The voters themselves were more aware of the situation than anyone else; turnout dropped to 46 percent in the first phase and 53 percent in the second, compared with 61.3 percent in 2021, and in seven of the eleven constituencies intended to take part in the final phase no voting at all took place. This was not an election that failed under pressure, but rather a display of control carried out using the language of an election.
The assembly’s system ensured the result well before the ballots were even printed. Since more than a quarter of the elected seats are therefore occupied by people living in different parts of Pakistan, 12 Kashmiri refugee seats, mainstream parties in Pakistan can form a majority in Muzaffarabad without having to win over the local population. Abolishing these seats was the main demand of the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), and on 7 June the region’s Supreme Court decided that the seats were constitutionally protected and could not be abolished.
After blocking the constitutional avenue, Islamabad turned to shut down the political one as well. JAAC was proscribed under the region’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2014; hundreds of activists were arrested, including chairman Shaukat Nawaz Mir, and all four of the main spokespeople were placed on a wanted list with a reward of ten million rupees. Amnesty International called the decision a dangerous escalation and denounced the internet shutdown, mass arbitrary arrests and the deadly use of force. Analysts suggest that JAAC was reclassified as a security threat because it had become PoJK’s most powerful political force.
Since June, over 100 innocent residents of PoJK have lost their lives and hundreds have been injured in firing incidents by the Pakistani security forces. JAAC leaders stated that 20 of their supporters were shot during the march on 27 July towards Muzaffarabad and that at least 10 more were killed the following day in Rawalakot and Mirpur. International media checked and located footage from Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad showing crowds running away under fire, and witnesses spoke of Pakistani forces’ snipers and light machine guns being placed along the route of the march.
The poll in PoJK was conducted in the same manner as the violent crackdown that preceded it. On 21 July, the Election Commission announced the schedule, dividing the voting process into three stages which were arranged around the period of unrest rather than following any logical electoral plan. Muzaffarabad had already been closed for two days when voting began on 2 August, and the city appeared as if it had already decided not to take part. Voting in seven constituencies in Poonch and Sudhnoti was postponed indefinitely, two Muzaffarabad seats were deferred, and the Commission arranged re-polling at 23 stations in Bagh. The PPP claimed that some polling staff in one of the Muzaffarabad constituencies had left their post and were found with official polling bags and ballot papers at the house of a PML-N supporter. Several such vote-rigging allegations and videos surfaced on social media, proving the elections were a sham.
Ironically, the information couldn’t be independently verified, which was the aim of the total communications blackout in PoJK. Internet watchdogs reported an internet shutdown beginning on 5 June in PoJK, with telecommunications restricted and connectivity very limited during that period. Foreign journalists were prevented from reporting in PoJK without prior approval under the new rules, which now require a ‘No Objection Certificate’ for areas outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Access to Al Jazeera’s website was interrupted after the network had sent reports from Muzaffarabad, and journalists Razi Tahir and Muhammad Saif were arrested in Islamabad on 1 August and have since gone unaccounted for. With an electorate cut off from the internet, the press kept away from the ground and an opposition that had been banned, verification has been made impossible by design to snatch all democratic rights in the region.
The outcome did not resolve anything since the assembly it formed was unable to address the complaint that had led to the protests. The PML-N came out with the largest group and the PPP in second place, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which had secured 26 seats in 2021, was left with none. The JAAC has since declared the elections fraudulent and called for the results to be nullified, with an interim government put in place. Protests have carried on into late August even though there was a communications blackout; the Rawalpindi District Bar Association went on strike because of the killings in Rawalakot and Mirpur, and demonstrators marched on Pakistan’s High Commission in London. PoJK residents are once again on the streets demanding the abolition of 12 seats, having seen the recent election change the ruling party name and nothing more.
The international community has largely remained silent on the PoJK’s situation, which Pakistan has come to regard as normal. Although Islamabad advocates at the United Nations for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir, it at the same time denies the people in PoJK the right to elect a legislature that is responsible to them, and this contradiction has always been without consequences, which is the reason why it continues. Foreign governments ought to demand accountability from Islamabad, in addition to the restoration of communications, an independent inquiry into the killings of protestors, removal of the terrorism label from JAAC, and full access for journalists and observers. An election held under threat of gunfire by the Pakistan military, despite the opposition of the majority of those it said it represented, deserves no recognition, and Pakistan should be made clearly aware of this.
>> Source: European Times
The assembly’s system ensured the result well before the ballots were even printed. Since more than a quarter of the elected seats are therefore occupied by people living in different parts of Pakistan, 12 Kashmiri refugee seats, mainstream parties in Pakistan can form a majority in Muzaffarabad without having to win over the local population. Abolishing these seats was the main demand of the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), and on 7 June the region’s Supreme Court decided that the seats were constitutionally protected and could not be abolished.
After blocking the constitutional avenue, Islamabad turned to shut down the political one as well. JAAC was proscribed under the region’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2014; hundreds of activists were arrested, including chairman Shaukat Nawaz Mir, and all four of the main spokespeople were placed on a wanted list with a reward of ten million rupees. Amnesty International called the decision a dangerous escalation and denounced the internet shutdown, mass arbitrary arrests and the deadly use of force. Analysts suggest that JAAC was reclassified as a security threat because it had become PoJK’s most powerful political force.
Since June, over 100 innocent residents of PoJK have lost their lives and hundreds have been injured in firing incidents by the Pakistani security forces. JAAC leaders stated that 20 of their supporters were shot during the march on 27 July towards Muzaffarabad and that at least 10 more were killed the following day in Rawalakot and Mirpur. International media checked and located footage from Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad showing crowds running away under fire, and witnesses spoke of Pakistani forces’ snipers and light machine guns being placed along the route of the march.
The poll in PoJK was conducted in the same manner as the violent crackdown that preceded it. On 21 July, the Election Commission announced the schedule, dividing the voting process into three stages which were arranged around the period of unrest rather than following any logical electoral plan. Muzaffarabad had already been closed for two days when voting began on 2 August, and the city appeared as if it had already decided not to take part. Voting in seven constituencies in Poonch and Sudhnoti was postponed indefinitely, two Muzaffarabad seats were deferred, and the Commission arranged re-polling at 23 stations in Bagh. The PPP claimed that some polling staff in one of the Muzaffarabad constituencies had left their post and were found with official polling bags and ballot papers at the house of a PML-N supporter. Several such vote-rigging allegations and videos surfaced on social media, proving the elections were a sham.
Ironically, the information couldn’t be independently verified, which was the aim of the total communications blackout in PoJK. Internet watchdogs reported an internet shutdown beginning on 5 June in PoJK, with telecommunications restricted and connectivity very limited during that period. Foreign journalists were prevented from reporting in PoJK without prior approval under the new rules, which now require a ‘No Objection Certificate’ for areas outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Access to Al Jazeera’s website was interrupted after the network had sent reports from Muzaffarabad, and journalists Razi Tahir and Muhammad Saif were arrested in Islamabad on 1 August and have since gone unaccounted for. With an electorate cut off from the internet, the press kept away from the ground and an opposition that had been banned, verification has been made impossible by design to snatch all democratic rights in the region.
The outcome did not resolve anything since the assembly it formed was unable to address the complaint that had led to the protests. The PML-N came out with the largest group and the PPP in second place, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which had secured 26 seats in 2021, was left with none. The JAAC has since declared the elections fraudulent and called for the results to be nullified, with an interim government put in place. Protests have carried on into late August even though there was a communications blackout; the Rawalpindi District Bar Association went on strike because of the killings in Rawalakot and Mirpur, and demonstrators marched on Pakistan’s High Commission in London. PoJK residents are once again on the streets demanding the abolition of 12 seats, having seen the recent election change the ruling party name and nothing more.
The international community has largely remained silent on the PoJK’s situation, which Pakistan has come to regard as normal. Although Islamabad advocates at the United Nations for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir, it at the same time denies the people in PoJK the right to elect a legislature that is responsible to them, and this contradiction has always been without consequences, which is the reason why it continues. Foreign governments ought to demand accountability from Islamabad, in addition to the restoration of communications, an independent inquiry into the killings of protestors, removal of the terrorism label from JAAC, and full access for journalists and observers. An election held under threat of gunfire by the Pakistan military, despite the opposition of the majority of those it said it represented, deserves no recognition, and Pakistan should be made clearly aware of this.
>> Source: European Times
