Скачать или смотреть Preview to vote aimed at ending political impasse

(4 Sep 2010)
1. Wide of street
2. Mid of the flag and seal of Moldova, over the Cabinet of Ministers building
3. Wide of people walking in street
4. Mid of people walking towards camera
5. Wide of the exterior of the polling station Number 68
6. Close of the sign above the door of polling station Number 68
7. Mid of Election Commission staff placing a ballot box on a table inside the polling station
8. Close of Moldovan seal on the ballot box
9. Mid of Election Commission staff inspecting a ballot box
10. SOUNDBITE: (Moldovan) Chernei Mariana, Head of the Polling Station 68:
"Today we finished all preparatory work and are ready for the constitutional referendum. We are expecting that the turnout will be big because every vote is important for the outcome of the referendum."
11. Wide of interior of polling station
12. Mid of street
13. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Mikhai, Chisinau resident:
"My motivation (for voting for the changes) is that I think that it is possible to bribe Parliament, but impossible to bribe the whole population."
14. Mid of Chisinau street
15.SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Nina Karman, student in Chisinau:
"I am going to cast my vote in order to change Article 78 of the constitution where it says that Parliament has the right to vote and not the people."
16. Mid of people walking
17. Wide of Chisinau street
STORYLINE:
Moldova is preparing for a referendum on Sunday which could break a longstanding political deadlock and introduce direct presidential elections.
Over two-thousand polling stations have been set up for the referendum, in which voters will decide whether they support an amendment to the constitution that would allow the president to be elected in a popular vote.
Moldova has experienced political instability since April, 2009 when the opposition staged mass protests in the capital Chisinau against the victory of the governing Communist Party.
The parliament has failed to elect a president since then.
The opposition refused to endorse the Communists' presidential candidate.
Then, when the Communists lost their majority to an alliance of four opposition parties in June, 2009, the Communists in turn refused to support the coalition's candidate.
Late last year, Moldovan Acting President, Speaker Mihai Ghimpu proposed a return to the election of president by popular vote which was ended when the Communist Party came to power in 2001.
The Communists want the president to be elected by parliament.
Representatives of the Council of Europe will help monitor Sunday's referendum.

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