Panchayat polls: Kathua records highest voter turnout till 10am, Kulgam lowest

Kathua aka 'the city of Sufis' of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday clocked the highest voter turnout (30.3 per cent) as of 10 am in the ongoing sixth phase of Panchayat elections in the state.

Poonch district has been placed second in the list with a voter turnout of 29.3 per cent, followed by Jammu- 29.2 per cent, Udhampur 28 per cent, Samba 24.4 per cent, Doda 21.3 per cent, and Ramban 20.5 per cent.

However, the voting percentage was abysmally low in Ganderbal (18.7 per cent), Bandipora (10.4 per cent), Baramulla (3.2 per cent), Srinagar (4.7 per cent) and Anantnag (2.2) districts. Even in terror-infested areas such as Kulgam and Budgam, the voter turnout till 10 am was 1.6 per cent an 2.1 per cent, respectively.

The voting process which began at 8 am, amid heightened security, and would continue till 2 pm. No untoward incident or technical glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) was reported from any part of the state.

Booths have been set up after a gap of four years across the state by the election commission. The last elections which took place in the state were the 2014 assembly elections, between 25 November and 20 December.