Скачать или смотреть WRAP Voting gets underway in country's first poll since civil war; ADDS opposition leader

(11 Aug 2007) SHOTLIST
++VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING++
1. Wide shot of vehicle carrying Ernest Bai Koroma, leader of the main opposition All People's Congress party, approaching
2. Koroma walking with supporters to voting tent
3. Koroma inside voting tent casting his vote
4. Close of Koroma's hand placing ballot paper into box
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ernest Bai Koroma, leader of the main opposition All People's Congress party:
" These elections are very very critical to the country. Elections that are conducted when we as Sierra Leoneans are in charge of the affairs of conducting the elections and we hope that the support given is solidified today by ensuring that right things happen."
6. Koroma inside car leaving voting station
7. Wide of polling station people queuing
8. Medium of old women sitting on stool
9. Wide of woman in queue
10. Close of baby
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Phileas Jeefu, voter:
"We are voting because it is time to change or to, kind of, the present period of the parliament is over, this is time to vote again to see if we can have a new parliament."
12. Woman voting, zoom in to box
13. Election official with woman voting
14. Ballot boxes in foreground, voting queue in background
STORYLINE:
Voting began on Saturday in Sierra Leone's first elections since the departure of United Nations peacekeepers 20 months ago, in a poll that will test whether the diamond-rich country can transfer power peacefully after years of conflict.
Long lines were visible at most polling stations in the capital Freetown, where voters queued up with umbrellas under drizzling rain, in some cases hours before voting booths opened.
"We are voting because it is time to change or to, kind of, the present period of the parliament is over, it is time to vote again to see if we can have a new parliament," one voter, Phileas Jeefu, said.
Vice President Solomon Berewa, 69, is the front-runner for the presidency, running against six others for the nation's top post.
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, 75, is barred from running again due to constitutional term limits.
Also running are 54-year-old Ernest Bai Koroma, a businessman leading the main opposition All People's Congress party, and Charles Francis Margai, 62, a lawyer and former minister who runs the People's Movement for Democratic Change.
On casting his vote Koroma said Saturdays elections were "very very critical to the country",
adding that he hoped his party would be shown solid support in Saturdays vote.
Some 572 candidates are contesting 112 parliamentary seats in Saturday's ballot.
One of the poorest nations in the world, Sierra Leone has struggled to rebuild after a decade of war and coups ended in 2002.
Now, the threat of war erupting anew is regarded as remote.
About 2.6 (m) million of the nation's five (m) million people are registered to vote.
Tens of thousands of civilians died during the country's long war, which ended after UN and British forces beat back the Revolutionary United Front.
The rebels were infamous for burning parts of Freetown, abducting children into their ranks, and raping and hacking off the limbs of civilians.
Kabbah is credited with keeping the country stable since then.
UN peacekeepers - the force once numbered 17,500 and was at its height the largest in the world - withdrew in the final days of 2005, leaving security to a new 9,500 strong police force and 10-thousand strong British trained army.
Sierra Leone has held two elections since the war ground to a halt: a presidential vote in 2002 and municipal elections two years later.

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