By IANS
Shimla : Braving icy winds some 62 percent of the voters cast their ballot in the first phase of polling for the Himachal Pradesh assembly Wednesday.
Election officials said 59 percent voters cast their ballot in Kinnaur, 61 percent in Bharmaur and around 73 percent in the sparsely populated Lahaul & Spiti seat.
Voting was generally moderate and heavy in some areas, election officials said.
Voting in the three seats was held five weeks before the rest of the state, as these areas tend to get snowbound early in winter.
While the remaining 65 assembly seats will go to the polls Dec 19, counting of votes will take place Dec 28.
Some 100 of the 298 polling stations in the three assembly segments are located at an altitude between 8,500 and 15,000 feet. Hikkem in the Spiti valley – with 318 voters – is the second highest polling station in India.
Bharmaur has 55,108 voters, Kinnaur 49,876 and Lahaul & Spiti 22,809.
Lahaul & Spiti is the largest assembly segment in the state in terms of area but has the fewest voters.
The twin valleys of Lahaul & Spiti are already cut off from the rest of the state due to heavy snowfall over the high passes leading to the region, but the electronic voting machines used Wednesday would be flown out of the area over the next two days, Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Nanda said.
While a dozen candidates are contesting the three assembly seats, observers say the main fight is between arch-rivals, the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).