Thursday, February 24 2005 13:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Fearing 'manipulation of results' by returning officers (ROs) in favour of the candidates of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president, Ramvilas Paswan, today (Feb 24,2005) urged the Election Commission (EC) to post its special observers in each of the counting centres to keep a strict vigil.

In a letter to the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer, K C Saha, Paswan said, before leaving for New Delhi after a month-long stay to campaign for party candidates in Bihar and Jaharkhand that "almost all of the sub-divisional officers, who are also the ROs, are promotees belonging to the State services''.

''They are lured by the promises of the State chief for bright postings and thus they work under complete influence of the Chief Minister,'' he alleged.

''In the cases where the candidates of Opposition parties won by marginal votes, the ROs manipulate the results in favour of the ruling party nominees who have actually lost,'' he alleged.

''It has also been observed that results of the winning candidates of ruling party are announced first, which ultimately creates adverse psychological impact on the winning candidates of the Opposition parties,'' he said.

''Apart from that the ROs also allow a number of unauthorised members of the ruling party to enter the counting hall whose sole purpose is to create confusion and chaos and disturb the counting process to gain advantage.'' He appealed to the Chief Electoral Officer to issue directives to the ROs not to indulge in such 'biased and prejudiced' acts.