Election security beefed up amid terror threats

BERLIN - Security measures were stepped up in Germany as voters headed to the polls last night in national elections.

Germany banned flights over the annual Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich after a series of terror threats aimed at the country.

The ban was ordered by the state's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, and will run until the end of Oktoberfest on October 4. This year's 16-day festival is expected to draw about six million visitors.

Photographs of German landmarks, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Oktoberfest in Munich and the Frankfurt skyline, had appeared on a Taleban video, as well as the country's Defence Minister, Franz Josef Jung, and Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schauble.

Terror groups have directed threatening videos and audio messages at Germany in the past two weeks.

Two tapes were released on Saturday, one featuring Osama bin Laden with German subtitles and another in which the Taleban threatened attacks on Germany in revenge for its military presence in Afghanistan. Bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan and threatened "retaliation" against them for their alliance with the US in the war.

"Your operation here against Islam makes an attack on Germany tempting for us mujahideen," a German-speaking Taleban fighter in Afghanistan identified as Ajjub said in the Taleban video.

The threats came as the final campaign rallies were held.

IntelCentre, an organisation that monitors terrorism, said the threats directed at Germany were "now at unprecedented levels".

Although Germany's election campaign has centred mainly on how best to spur economic recovery, the role of German troops in Afghanistan has come into the spotlight after the videos emerged.

It is not clear what, if any, effect the terror threats might have on voters. None of the main parties advocates an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. Only the Left party has called for that, but it remains a marginal force.

"At the moment I am expecting that the terror alerts will generate no direct reaction of the voters at all, at least no reactions that could lead to a change of voting behaviour," said Nils Diederich, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University.

Polls opened at 7pm following a lacklustre campaign centred largely on economic issues and a rash of last-minute threats by Islamic extremists.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping enough of the nation's 62.2 million eligible voters will support her conservative Christian Democratic Party to give them a solid enough standing to form a centre-right coalition with their top partners, the Free Democrats.

One of the final surveys indicated the conservatives could capture 33 per cent of the vote, while the Free Democrats were supported by 14 per cent in the poll by the Forsa institute.

That would give them a razor-thin lead in Parliament and allow Merkel to break with her partners of the past four years, Germany's other traditional main party, the Social Democrats.

In the Forsa survey they received only 25 per cent support. The Greens polled at 10 per cent, just behind the Left party at 12 per cent.

- OBSERVER, AP