8.30 per cent voting recorded by 9 am in Bihar

Around 8.30 per cent of 1.38 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first two hours of polling in eight Lok Sabha seats of Bihar in the sixth phase on Sunday, election officials said.

Polling is underway peacefully in Valmikinagar, West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan and Maharajganj with a few incidents of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines, the officials said.

Siwan recorded the highest voter turnout at 13 per cent followed by 10.50 per cent in Gopalganj, 9.06 per cent in Sheohar, 9.00 per cent in Vaishali, 8.90 per cent in Valmikinagar, 8.70 per cent in West Champaran, 5.60 per cent in Maharajganj and 4.98 per cent in East Champaran, they said.

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

He said the polling began late - between 30