Srinagar, India  - Small numbers of voters turned out to cast their ballots Wednesday amid tight security and under an overcast sky in the seventh and final phase of state assembly elections in India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

The first three hours of balloting saw voter turnout of about 3 per cent in eight constituencies in Srinagar district, the centre of an anti-India agitation earlier in 2008.

The turnout was about 10 per cent in the other 13 constituencies in southern Jammu and its adjoining Samba district.

Election officials said they expected voting to pick up in the afternoon once the weather improved.

The turnout in the previous six phases of the elections reached an unprecedented 50 per cent. The elections were staggered to enable security forces provide maximum security to voters and candidates.

The disputed Kashmir region is divided into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.

More than 40,000 people have died in a violent separatist militant movement in India-administered Kashmir in the past two decades.

Elections in the state have been marred by militant attacks in the past, but there have been no such incidents this time.

People cast their votes despite a call by separatist political parties to boycott elections.

"We are fighting for a free Kashmir, at the same time we want roads, electricity and jobs for our unemployed youth. We are voting for governance and not for the resolution of the Kashmir issue," Bashir Ahmed Butt, a schoolteacher from Srinagar said soon after casting his vote.

At least 70,000 police, and soldiers were deployed around polling booths for Wednesday's elections.

Thirty thousand of them were guarding booths and patrolling streets in Srinagar city, the summer capital of the state, and its adjoining areas.

No vehicles except those of election officials were being allowed on the roads. Shops and businesses were closed.

At least a dozen small anti-election protests were reported from Srinagar district, and were dispersed by the police. (dpa)