"Till 5 PM, 58 per cent votes were polled and it is estimated to reach 63 per cent by the time polling concludes. Polling was largely peaceful and incident-free," State Election Commissioner S K Agarwal told reporters here.
Minor stray incidents were reported from Meerut and Etawah districts, Agrawal said.
The SEC said that polling at one booth in Etawah was suspended by the district magistrate following complaints of water pouring into ballot boxes and tearing of ballot papers.
In Meerut, polling at four booths were suspended on complaint of bogus voting.
"Repoll has been ordered at both the places on June 26," Agarwal said.
The first phase of polling covered Saharanpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Badaun, Mahamaya Nagar, Firozabad, Etawah, Farukkhabad, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, CSM Nagar, Gonda, Basti, Deoria, Ballia and Varanasi.
Polling was held at 9,693 stations at 2,896 centres with more than 88.55 lakh electorates.
This phase would decide fate of 1,521 candidates for the posts of mayor and chairman of municipal corporations, nagar palikas and nagar panchayats and 12,985 candidates for the posts of corporators.
Meanwhile, a presiding officer died while on duty at a polling booth in Sirsaganj.
Chottelal (47), who was posted at Islamia inter-college, developed health problem after which he was admitted to the hospital where he died.
