Voting began at 7 am and proceeded steadily through the day. Men and women, the young and old, some too frail to walk and others patiently waiting their turn, queued up outside polling booths across Kashmir Valley and Jammu

Of the 90 seats, 24 are voting in the first phase -- 16 in the Kashmir Valley and eight in Jammu region. Over 2.3 million voters are eligible to vote to determine the fate of 219 candidates, including 90 Independents

At 9 am, two hours after polling began, the turnout was 11.11 per cent. At 1 pm, it was 26.72 per cent. At 3 pm, 50.65 per cent of the voters had turned up. And by 5 pm, an hour before polling was due to end, the number had inched up to 58.19 per cent

Encouraged by the sight of long lines of people waiting to exercise their franchise, officials hoped the turnout would be higher than the 60.19 per cent in 2014 when the last assembly elections were held

The elections to the 90-member assembly are the first since Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated and the state was downgraded into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, in August 2019

Security forces fanned out to ensure that there was no trouble. The day was largely without incident except for reports of clashes between political workers in some areas of Bijbehara and D H Pora

Officials said the highest voting percentage was recorded in Jammu region's Inderwal at 80.06 per cent, followed by Padder-Nagseni at 76.80 per cent and Kishtwar at 75.04 per cent. Doda West also recorded a high turnout of 74.14 per cent during the period

In the Kashmir valley, the Pahalgam segment recorded the highest turnout of 67.86 per cent. It was followed by D H Pora at 65.21 per cent, Kulgam at 59.58, Kokernag at 58 per cent and Dooru at 57.90 per cent

The lowest -- 40.58 per cent -- was recorded in the Tral segment, officials said, adding that the four constituencies in Pulwama district have not yet crossed the 50 per cent mark

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the several leaders encouraging voters to come out in large numbers and take part in the "festival of democracy"