'No blank ballots confiscated'
2005-12-14 16:13
Baghdad - The interior ministry on Wednesday denied reports that a tanker truck filled with thousands of blank ballots had been confiscated in a town near the Iranian border.
United States authorities said they could not confirm the report and an Iraq official suggested it was disinformation.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, had said a truck entered Iraq from Iran and was seized on Tuesday in the border town of Badra, about 150km southeast of Baghdad.
Later, however, the interior ministry issued a denial of the report.
"This report in untrue and it aims to affect the election process," the interior ministry said in a terse statement issued one day before Thursday's elections.
Deputy interior minister major general Ali Ghalib had said the ministry was unable to confirm the reports and that security forces in the eastern province of Wasit were looking into the case.
The security official earlier said there were two other trucks that are believed to have crossed into Iraq. US officials said they had no confirmation of the report.
A spokesperson for the election commission, Farid Ayar, told Al-Arabiya television the report was untrue and "seemed it is a kind of an electoral ploy in favour of this party or that".
Voters go to the polls on Thursday to select a new 275-member parliament.
- AP