Guwahati, Apr 11 (IANS): Twenty-five per cent votes were cast in the first three hours of polling in Assam's five Lok Sabha constituencies, election officials said.

The average polling percentage stood at 25 per cent at 11 a.m.

Tezpur constituency recorded the highest at 28 per cent while Kaliabar came in second with 26 per cent followed by Jorhat (25 per cent), Dibrugarh (24 per cent) Lakhimpur (22 per cent).

A total of 41 candidates are in the fray in the five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in this first phase of parliamentary elections.

Voting started at 7 a.m. across 9,574 polling stations. A total of 76,03,458 people are eligible to vote till 5 p.m.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal voted in Dibrugarh on Thursday morning.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate for the Jorhat constituency Topon Kumar Gogoi voted at a polling station at Sonari and appealed to the people of all sections to exercise their franchise.

Of the 9,574 polling stations, 201 are reserved for women.

The Election Commission has deployed 180 companies of security personnel.