Topic: Blank Iraqi ballots seized on truck from Iran

BAGHDAD, Dec 13 (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of blank ballots like those to
be used in this week's Iraqi elections have been found on a tanker truck
which entered the country from neighbouring Iran, security officials said
Tuesday.

"A truck with Iranian number plates was intercepted Tuesday night in the
locality of Badra, Wasset province, southeast of Baghdad," an official said.


Another security source confirmed the discovery and said authorities were
looking for three other suspect trucks in areas east of Baghdad near the
Iranian border.

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

The ballot papers were not printed by the Iraqi Electoral Commission which
is the only body authorised to supply voting materials.

Iraqis go to the polls Thursday for the third time this year to elect a
275-member Council of Representatives that will form the basis of the first
permanent post-Saddam Hussein government.