Fourth phase Assembly polls:10% voters cast vote in first 2hrs

Srinagar:  Nearly 10 per cent of the voters cast their votes in the first two hours of polling in the fourth phase of elections for 18 seats in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.

The overall polling percentage till 10 AM for the 16 constituencies of Kashmir Valley is around 10 per cent, while over 13 per cent electorate exercised their franchise in Samba and Vijaypur constituencies of Jammu region, the officials said.  They said the turnout in Samba was 13.56 per cent while in Vijaypur, it was 12.71 per cent. Despite severe cold, people were seen going towards the polling booths and long queues of voters were seen outside the polling stations to exercise their franchise, the officials said. The trends in voter turnout in eight constituencies of Srinagar city, which have witnessed low voter turnout in the past elections due to separatist boycott calls, pointed towards a higher poll percentage this time.  Sonawar constituency, where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is contesting, witnessed the highest 9.24 turnout during the first two hours of polling, while Khanyar constituency in the city recorded 8.13 per cent turnout during the corresponding period. Zadibal, Amirakadal, Eidgah and Hazratbal constituencies witnessed slightly over 7 per cent turnout each, while Batmaloo and Habbakadal constituencies of the city saw 6.24 per cent and 4.73 per cent turnout till 10 AM, respectively.  Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir, where PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is a candidate, saw 7.90 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the first two hours.   Pahalgam and Shangus segments in Anatnag district recorded brisk polling at 14.91 per cent and 14.93 per cent respectively while Shopian and Wachi seats also saw a healthy turnout of 10.68 per cent and 8.43 per cent respectively.   Police officials said the voting across the 16 constituencies of the Valley spread over three districts was going on peacefully with no untoward incident reported so far. Stringent security arrangements have been put in place to ensure incident-free polling across the Valley, the officials said.