An estimated voter turnout of 61.2% was recorded in the sixth phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, the Election Commission said.

The first phase of polling had recorded an average turnout of 66.14% followed by 66.71% in the second phase. There was 65.68% polling in the third phase and 69.16% in the fourth. The average turnout in the fifth phase was 62.2%.

This number was as of 11.45 pm on Saturday and the figure will be updated by the field level officers “as polling parties keep returning”, the poll panel said.

On Saturday, polling took place in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, eight each in West Bengal and Bihar, seven in Delhi, six in Odisha, four in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

The estimated turnout in the sixth phase in Bihar was 55.2%, 60.4% in Haryana, 54.3% in Jammu and Kashmir and 63.76% in Jharkhand.

While the National Capital Territory of Delhi recorded an estimated turnout of 57.67%, the number was 54.03 in Uttar Pradesh, 79.47% in West Bengal and 69.56% in Odisha.

Voters in Odisha were also polling in the Assembly elections.

Earlier on Saturday, the Election Commission released the absolute number of votes cast in each parliamentary constituency during the first five phases of the general election.

While the poll regulator had previously released the final voter turnout percentages for all five phases, it had not specified the actual number of electors who cast their ballots in each constituency.

The data was released a day after the Supreme Court declined to pass interim directions to the poll panel to publicly release the booth-wise absolute number of voters. The court had verbally observed that a “hands-off” approach was needed while the election process was underway.

The observations came on a petition by the non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms.

The citizen watchdog group was seeking directions to the Election Commission to immediately release data from Form 17C, which contains a record of votes recorded in an Electronic Voting Machine. The plea was filed as there was a delay in publishing this data after the first two phases of polling.

The plea demanded that the poll panel disclose authenticated records of voter turnout by uploading scanned legible copies of Form 17C of all polling stations after each phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on the Commission’s website.

However, the poll regulator had told the court on Wednesday, that it has no legal mandate to publish Form 17C and that the document could only be given to candidates or their agents.

The final phase of polling is scheduled for June 1. Counting of votes will take place on June 4.