(30 Oct 2011)
1. Wide of exterior of polling station 121 in downtown Bishkek
2. Mid of sign reading (Kyrgyz): "Kyrgyzstan Presidential Elections 2011"
3. Wide of polling station interiors
4. Mid of voters waiting to have their documents checked
5. Mid of election workers checking documents
6. Close of election worker signing paper
7. SOUNDBITE (Kyrgyz) Toktokan Baibosunova, Election Committee Member:
"I think right now the future and fate of the country is being decided. The voting place has opened very joyfully. The number of our voting station is 121. A lot of people are coming. Compared to other elections it has been busy, as you can see from the very beginning there are a lot of people."
8. Close of invisible ink being put on thumb of voter
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Lludmila Doroshenko, Voter and Medical Volunteer:
"The elections are going well as usual. Everything is calm and quiet. All the staff who were supposed to come came and everyone is doing their job. The medical centre is working."
10. Mid tracking shot of voter going to voting booth after receiving ballot
11. Mid of voter placing ballot into box, pan down to ballots at bottom of box
12. Mid pan left of voter going to voting booth
13. Mid of voters putting ballots into box and walking out
14. Wide of voting station interiors
STORYLINE:
Polling has started in a presidential election in the small and impoverished Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, in a vote that could set a democratic precedent for the region.
Sunday's vote in the economically struggling ex-Soviet nation follows the April 2010 violent ouster of former leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev and ethnic violence in which rampaging mobs killed hundreds of minority ethnic Uzbeks in the country's south.
Hosting both U.S. and Russian military air bases and neighbouring China to its east the outcome is the subject of lively international interest.
Three main contenders are vying for victory: front-runner Almazbek Atambayev and two popular nationalist politicians - Kamchibek Tashiyev and Adakhan Madumarov.
Acting President Roza Otunbayeva is due to step aside for the eventual winner at the end of the year, setting the stage for the first peaceful transition of power in the economically struggling ex-Soviet nation's post-independence history.
Many are concerned that the election could lay bare interregional divisions. Atambayev's following is mainly in the north, while his nationalist opponents' main base of support in the south.
At polling station 121 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, dozens of voters showed up at 8:00am (0200 GMT) to cast their ballot.
Election committee member Toktokan Baibosunova said early turnout appeared high. "A lot of people are coming. Compared to other elections it has been busy."
Over the two decades since the country gained independence, elections have been purely formal exercises designed to lend a threadbare veil of legitimacy to the ruling elite.
Bakiyev and his predecessor, mathematician Askar Akayev, only left office after being literally chased out of it by angry mobs.
None of the three top contenders is likely to garner more than 50 percent of votes in the Oct. 30 election, setting stage for a runoff between the two top vote-getters.
The 55-year-old front-runner Almazbek Atambayev, a wealthy businessman who stepped down as prime minister in September
to take part in the election campaign, hopes his efforts to restore economic stability over the past year will aid his chances.
Raising pitifully low state salaries and pensions has certainly helped cast him as the welfare candidate.
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