Afghan election officials said yesterday that scores of additional polling stations will have to remain closed during the Sept. 18 parliamentary vote because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

The state electoral commission said 81 of the 458 polling stations planned in Nangarhar province will remain shut during the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections "due to deteriorating security conditions." The tense eastern province bordering Pakistan is a centre of the Taliban insurgency, with many militants entering the country from safe havens across the border.

Election officials had earlier announced that more than 900 other polling stations would remain shut nationwide because of security concerns and that5,897 voting sites would be opened throughout Afghanistan. During last year's fraud-marred presidential vote, 6,167 voting centres nominally operated.