Former foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said that Pakistan and the international community agreed that India had no authority to cancel the statehood of the Indian Held J&K. “Even the Indian Supreme Court has said that they should return the statehood, they cannot take it,” Chaudhary said while speaking to GeoNews.

The vote will see a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, with a chief minister at the top heading a council of ministers. But Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator.

For decades, boycotting elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir was a sign of protest against Indian rule. That may change on Wednesday, when many residents of the Muslim-majority region say they’re willing to use their vote in a local election to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form an administration in the disputed region.