First Khalistan Referendum vote held in London

Who: Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a US-based group that India banned in 2019, with Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as its public voice. SFJ says the voting was supervised by the Punjab Referendum Commission, a panel it describes as non-aligned experts in direct democracy.

What: On Sunday 31 October 2021 Sikhs voted at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, near the Houses of Parliament, in the first phase of SFJ's Khalistan Referendum. Voters were asked: "Should Indian-governed Punjab be an independent country?" Organisers chose the date because it is the anniversary of the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Pannun told Geo News that 30,000 people voted, a count he said independent experts hired for the voting had made. No independent count of this round has been published. Results were not announced that day: Pannun said the commission would declare them after the final phase, about six months away. A second UK phase followed on Sunday 7 November at the gurdwaras in Southall and Gravesend, where organisers claimed more than 10,000 voters.

Where: The Queen Elizabeth II Centre, Westminster, London.

Why it mattered: This was the start of the overseas rounds. SFJ then took the vote to other cities. The San Francisco Standard listed London, Geneva, Rome, Toronto and Vancouver as the votes before its own in January 2024, and later rounds reached Australia and New Zealand.

The vote is unofficial and non-binding. SFJ co-founder Bakhshish Singh Sandhu said in 2024 that organisers aim to gather as many votes as possible and then seek a binding referendum organised by the United Nations. India banned SFJ in 2019 and has labelled Pannun a "terrorist"; SFJ disputes this. Every turnout figure in this series comes from the organisers or the commission they set up, so readers should treat the numbers as claims.