21.52 per cent voting recorded till 11 am in Bihar

Around 21.52 per cent of 1.38 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first four hours of polling in eight Lok Sabha seats of Bihar in the sixth phase on Sunday, election officials said.

A polling officer was killed at a polling station in a freak incident of firing by a home guard before polling started in Sheohar Lok Sabha seat.

A few incidents of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines were reported from various booths, the officials said.

Vaishali recorded the highest voter turnout at 25.50 per cent, followed by 22.50 per cent in East Champaran, 21.80 per cent in West Champaran, 21.50 in Valmikinagar, 21.20 per cent in Sheohar, 21 per cent in Siwan, 20.60 in Gopalganj and 18.30 per cent in Maharajganj.

"Polling has been peaceful with no untoward incidents reported from any of these constituencies so far except initial reports of EVM malfunctioning from a few places. Voting began after rectifying the technical problems," an official said.

He said the ...