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 polling began late - between 30 minutes and 90 minutes - in certain polling stations due to technical problems in EVMs which were rectified.
A polling officer was killed at a polling station in Sheohar constituency when a homeguard accidently fired from his rifle while he was cleaning his gun before the start of polls in the morning, police said.
The injured polling officer, identified as Shivendra Kishore, was admitted to a hospital where he died.
The homeguard was arrested, police said.
Prominent candidates whose electoral fate will be decided on Sunday's polling included Union minister Radha Mohan Singh (East Champaran), senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (Vaishali), RJD's Heena Shahab (Siwan) who is the wife of Siwan strongman and former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, BJP sitting MPs Rama Devi (Sheohar), Janardan Singh Sigriwal (Maharajganj) and Sanjay Jaiswal (West Champaran).
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