Over 72 per cent of Punjab's nearly 1.99 crore voters cast their votes on Saturday in 117 assembly segments in the northern state, election officials said here.

Sangrur district recorded the highest 81 per cent voting, followed by Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib districts at 80 per cent.

The Malwa belt (south of Sutlej river), comprising 14 of the 22 districts in Punjab and having 69 of the 117 assembly seats, saw a high voter turnout in all districts. 

Eight districts in this belt saw over 75 per cent voting, while four districts recorded over 70 per cent voting.

Hoshiarpur (63 per cent) and Amritsar (65 per cent) recorded the lowest voting among all 22 districts.

Voting was continuing at some polling stations since voters who had queued up by 5 p.m. were allowed to exercise their franchise.

There were 22,614 polling stations across Punjab.

Punjab witnessed 78.57 per cent voting in the 2012 assembly polls.