Bhubaneswar, June 1 : A voting percentage of 22.64 was recorded in the first four hours of polling in Odisha's six Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly segments on Saturday where simultaneous elections are taking place.

Around one crore people are going to exercise their franchise in six parliamentary constituencies -- Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur -- and 42 Assembly segments under these constituencies.

As per the Election Commission of India, Balasore with 27.66 per cent voting has recorded maximum polling among the parliamentary constituencies.

Addressing a press conference here, Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal said, "Polling is going on peacefully in 10,882 polling stations in the last phase of polling. The six parliamentary constituencies in this phase had recorded high voter turnout with 74.38 per cent in the 2019 general elections.'

Dhal further stated that 6,279 (58 per cent) polling booths are under strict surveillance through live webcasting. He also informed the media that 79 ballot units, 106 control units and 233 VVPATs have been replaced so far after the EVM machines were found malfunctioning.

He urged voters to come out of their houses in large numbers and exercise their democratic rights.

The voters will decide the fate of several heavyweights from different political parties, including former Union Minister and BJP's Balasore MP candidate, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, the party's national vice president and candidate for Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat, Baijayant Panda, senior Congress leader Srikant Kumar Jena, ruling Biju Janata Dal leader Pratap Keshari Deb. in this phase.

As many as 460 candidates, including 66 for the parliamentary elections and 394 for the Assembly elections, are in the fray.

As many as 36,000 police personnel, including 126 companies of Central Armed Police Force, 86 platoons of Odisha Armed Police and 20,500 civil police personnel have been deployed for the final phase of polling. More than 72,000 polling personnel are engaged to ensure the smooth conduct of polling in the final phase.

/IANS