New Delhi, October 30
The Election Commission has made it mandatory for the candidates in the fray for the assembly elections in five states to show the accounts of poll expenditure to the observers or returning officers once in three days.

The accounts would be displayed on the notice board of the Returning Office concerned, EC sources said after a meeting of the observers here today.

To ensure free and fair elections, the commission has decided to deploy 500 central observers to oversee the election process.

The observers will cover the entire election process from the filing, scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations to the polling and counting process, followed by declaration of results, the sources said.

Of the 500 observers, 164 will be deployed in Madhya Pradesh, 131 in Rajasthan, 62 in Chhattisgarh, 36 in Delhi and 28 in Mizoram.

“On an average, one observer will cover two assembly constituencies. For every byelection, one general observer and one expenditure observer would monitor the process.”