Blank Iraqi ballots seized

Baghdad: A tanker truck containing forged ballot papers had been seized crossing into Iraq from Iran before Thursday's elections, security officials said on Wednesday.

The reports have raised concerns that Shiite Iran, which has close relations with Iraq's Islamist Shiite political parties, was attempting to influence the election.

Officials said that a truck with an Iranian number plate was intercepted on Tuesday in Badra, southeast of Baghdad and that police were looking for two other suspect trucks.

"The blank ballots were probably destined to stuff the ballot boxes" in Thursday's general election, a security official said.

Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib, chief of Iraq?s border guards, denied the reports, saying, "This is all a lie".

"I contacted all the border crossing points and there was no report of any such incident," he said.

Voters go to the polls on Thursday to select a new 275-member parliament.