Guwahati: The first phase of polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in seven Northeast states ended with an average of 68.88% of the 1,46,46,517 voters of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura casting their votes to choose their representatives.

According to the reports of the Election Commission of India, a 68% voter turnout was recorded in Assam till 5pm as the polling was held for five Lok Sabha seats – Kaliabor, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, Jorhat and Dibrugarh. 67.4% of total 76,03,458 voters exercised their franchise to choose their representatives to the 17th Lok Sabha from five seats in Assam till 5pm.

A 64% voter turnout was recorded in the Kaliabor Lok Sabha seat, while 70% was recorded in Tezpur, 62% in Lakhimpur, 72% in Jorhat and 69% in Dibrugarh till 5pm.

Many voters were still lined up at many polling booths.

On the other hand, 58.26% of the total of 7,94,162 voters exercised their franchise in the two Lok Sabha seats of Arunachal Pradesh – Arunachal West and Arunachal East.

A 62% voter turnout was recorded in Meghalaya as polling was held for two seats – Shillong and Tura till 5pm.

According to the ECI reports, a 73.81% voter turnout was recorded in Nagaland, 61.29% polling percentage in Mizoram till 5pm.

On the other hand, a 78.2% voter turnout was recorded in Manipur as polling was held for the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha seat. 81.23% of the total 13,47, 381 voters had exercised their franchise in Tripura for the Tripura West seat till 5pm.

Electoral fortunes of 93 candidates were sealed in the EVMs in Thursday's polling.

A total of 21,585 polling stations were set up in the first phase of polls in the seven Northeast states.

In the 2014 general election, a 79.88% voter turnout was recorded in Assam, while 78.61% was recorded in Arunachal Pradesh, 79.62% in Manipur, 68.79% in Meghalaya, 61.69% in Mizoram, 87.82% in Nagaland and 84.72% in Tripura.