Chandigarh, Oct 13 (IANS) About 18 percent of Haryana’s 13 million electorate had cast their votes in the first four hours of polling for elections to the 90-member assembly Thursday.
The Pehowa assembly seat near Kurukshetra saw the highest turnout of 25 percent till 11 a.m. The lowest was Bawal, close to Manesar near the national capital, at eight percent, officials said.

Voting started at 7 a.m. with rural voters showing more enthusiasm than their urban counterparts. The voting will continue till 5 p.m.

In places like Gurgaon, for instance, voting got off to a slow start. With most offices in the suburban town closed, people were slow to come out of the high-rise buildings and bungalows to exercise their franchise.

Haryana has an electorate of over 13 million - 7.1 million men and 5.9 million women. The highest number of voters are in the Gurgaon assembly constituency - over 231,000. In a span of just five months, nearly 1.1 million new voters have been added to the voters’ list in Haryana, officials said.