Srinagar: Kathua aka ‘the city of Sufis’ of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday clocked the highest voter turnout (30.3 percent) 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 percent, followed by Jammu- 29.2 percent, Udhampur 28 percent, Samba 24.4 percent, Doda 21.3 percent, and Ramban 20.5 percent.
However, the voting percentage was abysmally low in Ganderbal (18.7 percent), Bandipora (10.4 percent), Baramulla (3.2 percent), Srinagar (4.7 percent) and Anantnag (2.2) districts. Even in terror-infested areas such as Kulgam and Budgam, the voter turnout till 10 am was 1.6 percent an 2.1 percent, 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.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]