New Delhi, Sunday 19 Oct 2008: The Election Commission has announced the poll dates for Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The Commission has decided that elections will be held in seven phases in J&K and first phase will begin on November 17” the Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy said in New Delhi

“The second phase of elections will be held on November 23, the third phase on November 30 and the fourth phase will be held on December 7,” he said.

The CEC also said, “As per the Constitution of J&K, polling will be held in 87 Assembly seats out of which seven seats are reserved for SC/ST. The counting of votes will be held on December 28.”

He also said that appropriate security arrangements have been made and forces will man all the important places.

The Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalswamy was not in favour as he felt the conditions were not favourable right now due to reasons like low voter turnout, state officials refusing poll duty and parties not cooperating.

The last time the elections took place in J&K was in 2002 when the Congress-PDP coalition came to power by defeating the National Conference.

The 2002 elections were held in four phases in more than 14,000 polling stations.

The overall voter turnout in the state was about 44 per cent. However, in the Kashmir valley, it was just 29 per cent. The Srinagar constituency had recorded the lowest turnout.