INDIA: Millions of Indians yesterday defied insurgent attacks and braved searing temperatures as they queued up patiently to vote in the first of five rounds of staggered polling to elect a new parliament in the world's largest democracy.
At least 18 people, including four security forces personnel and a female journalist, were killed and an equal number injured in election-day violence.
All elections in India are marred by clashes between rival political groups, and strikes by rebels fighting either for autonomy or for secession.
Officials blamed Muslim militants opposing Indian control over disputed Kashmir state for exploding a landmine under a jeep filled with Indian journalists and human rights activists as they were making their way to monitor polling stations in Baramulla constituency near the Pakistani frontier.
Insurgents also fatally wounded a paramilitary soldier guarding a polling station in Kashmir, while six civilians, including two poll workers, were injured in another bomb blast in the war-torn principality.
Over 70,000 people have died in Kashmir's continuing 15-year insurgency for an independent Muslim homeland.
Maoist rebels fighting for a separate state in the adjoining eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar, amongst India's most lawless, were reportedly responsible for killing a magistrate, a polling agent and a voter, and wounding four police officers.
The Maoists had ordered an election boycott in these two states, threatening violence against anyone who defied their ban.
In election-related violence, four paramilitary soldiers on poll duty were killed overnight and three others injured when the People's Liberation Army militant group attacked them in remote Manipur state near the Burmese (Myanmar) border.
According to official estimates, between 50 to 55 per cent of the 175 million eligible voters exercised their franchise yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and former prime minister Mr H D Deve Gowda were among the 1,100 candidates in the fray.
Electronic voting machines were used for the first time yesterday throughout the country, a move the independent Election Commission claimed would largely obviate poll-rigging through the "capture" of voting booths and the indiscriminate stamping of ballot papers favouring the more "muscular" candidate.
The right index finger of all voters is marked with indelible ink to prevent them from duplicating their vote. However, in areas where armed groups have issued a fiat against voting, this identification mark at times proves a handicap as it makes them targets for militants.
With more than 660 million registered voters, India's elections will be held in five phases over three weeks ending May 10th to allow the security forces time to redeploy.
Counting of votes will begin soon after, and a new administration is expected to be in office by mid-May.
Opinion polls indicate a further five-year term for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition.