Iraqi Officials Deny Forged Ballots Seized at Border

Iraqi Officials Deny Forged Ballots Seized at Border
By Alisha Ryu
Baghdad
14 December 2005

Iraq's interior minister on Wednesday denied a report by his own ministry that a tanker truck filled with forged ballot papers was seized a day earlier near Iraq's border with Iran. Sectarian tension is increasing before Thursday's all-important parliamentary elections in Iraq.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr says his ministry received no reports of a tanker being seized by Iraqi border police in the town of Badra, east of Baghdad, after it crossed over from Iran.

The New York Times newspaper reported the seized tanker contained several thousand partly completed ballots. The newspaper said the Iranian driver of the tanker told authorities that at least three other tankers, loaded with forged ballots, had recently entered Iraq from Iran at different border crossings.

The source for the news story was an unnamed official in Mr. Jabr's interior ministry. But the minister dismissed the report as as an attempt to discredit the election process.

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