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 center of the Taleban 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 that 5,897 voting sites would be opened throughout Afghanistan. During last year's fraud-marred presidential vote, 6,167 voting centers nominally operated. The government and its foreign partners hope the elections will help consolidate the country's shaky democracy and political stability, allowing the withdrawal of the roughly 140,000 NATO-led foreign troops in the country. But many Afghans and international observers fear the vote could turn bloody after the Taleban vowed Sunday to attack polling places and warned Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.