The JMM on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the state chief electoral officer (CEO) with certain demands to ensure complete transparency during counting of votes for the Assembly elections on Monday.

“We submitted the memorandum to the additional chief electoral officer K.N. Jha on the directive of the CEO and he assured that all the points raised by us would be looked into,” JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said.

Highlighting the points of the memorandum Bhattacharya said that the engineers and technicians who have been camping to look into EVM related problems should be allowed to enter the strongrooms only in the presence of representatives of all political parties contesting the elections.

“We have raised this point because the engineers and technicians happen to be contract employees provided by a corporate house and we cannot trust them blindly,” explained Bhattacharya.

Ensuring clear-cut identity of these technicians and prohibiting use of any electronic gadget by them inside the counting centre is another major point of the memorandum.

“The additional CEO assured us to look into all the points raised by us and he also informed us that during the video conference with district officials on Sunday all these points would be flagged and they would be asked to look into the points highlighted by us,” Bhattacharya said.

He also clarified that even though questions had been raised over voting through EVMs in the past, the JMM had full faith in the impartiality of the Election Commission.

Leader shot dead

JMM district vice-president and the party’s election in-charge for Mandar assembly constituency, Subodh Tiwary, was shot dead at Murma, roughly 20km from Ranchi, around 5.30pm on Saturday. A locality resident said three men approached Tiwary, spoke to him briefly, and then one of them fired four times at Tiwary. Two more men were waiting nearby and the five fled together, the resident said.