A massive turn out of 63.75 per cent voters marked the first phase of the seven-phased Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Elections2008 that concluded on Tuesday.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Mr. B. R. Sharma, following is the percentage of votes polled in the 10 constituencies except Sonawari, Nobra and Zanskar constituencies where information from some polling stations is still awaited:

Gurez 74.10%

Bandipora 57.08%

Sonawari 46.05% (tentative)

Nobra 60.16% (tentative)

Leh 60.40%

Kargil 60.02%

Zanskar 60.19% (tentative)

Surankote 68.01%

Mendhar 73.05%

Poonch-Haveli 73.23%

State overall percentage 63.75%

In Mendhar constituency of the Poonch district, supporters of the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) clashed with one another, leading to disruption of voting in one booth.

The polling party had to stop the voting as there were fisticuffs, jostling and then straight clashes between the two groups.
This also led to a situation where the police had to resort to lathicharge initially, and later open firing. The police personnel present on the spot fired several rounds in the air to stop the violence.

The bullets fired in the air had the desired effect in forcing the two groups to disengage and run away. Several members of the police party, including a local Station House Officer (SHO) and a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) were caught in the melee and spend several hours, virtually in captivity of the protesters.

The protesters also blocked the road leading to Mendhar town from Gursai. They have been demanding that a re-poll be held so that hundreds of voters who could not exercise their franchise due to clashes can do it in the re-polling.