(18 Feb 2012)
1. Close up of rubber stamp lying on passport, pull focus to people in background
2. Mid of woman opening ballot box, scrutineers looking in it to confirm it's empty
3. Close up of paper seals being put on ballot box
4. Mid of scrutineers signing ballot box seals
5. Mid of voters walking by holding passports
6. Man having passport checked by polling station worker
7. Close up passport and list of voters
8. Mid of women in carnival costumes coming from party to vote
9. SOUNDBITE (Latvian) Mara Putnina, Latvian voter:
"I'm voting against it. The Latvian language should be the state one. And this is without a doubt."
10. Mid of woman casting vote
11. SOUNDBITE (Latvian) Livija Baumane, Latvian voter:
"I'm a bit surprised that this issue has become so pressing right now. Both languages are functional, there are newspapers in both languages. I don't understand what has made the question so important. "
12. Mid of people filling in ballots
13. Close up of man having ID checked
14. Close up of passport being stamped
15. SOUNDBITE (Latvian) Liga (Surname Not Given), Latvian voter:
"We have come here directly from the carnival in the Latvian Arts Academy. And since we are Latvian citizens we have come to vote against it."
16. Mid of man casting vote
17. Various close ups of people casting ballots
+EARLY MORNING SHOTS+
18. Wide of Riga street
19. Mid of entrance to polling station
20. Banner with information about referendum
21. Wide view of Riga
STORYLINE:
Voting stations in Latvia opened early on Saturday in a historic referendum on whether to make Russian the nation's second national language.
Opinion polls held before the referendum suggested voters were unlikely to agree to the proposal.
For some ethnic Latvians, the referendum is a brazen attempt to encroach on Latvia's independence, which was restored two decades ago after the country split from the Soviet Union.
"I'm voting against it. The Latvian language should be the state one. And this is without a doubt," Latvian Mara Putnina said before casting her vote on Saturday.
Latvia's minority Russians, who make up approximately one-third of the Baltic country's 2.1 (m)million people, believe that according official status to the Russian language will reverse what they claim has been 20 years of discrimination.
But hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians living in Latvia cannot take part in the vote as they have non-citizen status.
There has been a dispute over the status of the Russian language in Latvia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
However some are perplexed at the vote, believing the two languages already stand side by side in the country.
"I'm a bit surprised that this issue has become so pressing right now. Both languages are functional, there are newspapers in both languages. I don't understand what has made the question so important," voter Livija Baumane said on Saturday.
The referendum highlights the division between Latvia's ethnic communities, still many are keen to have their voice heard with some voters coming directly from their late night parties to cast their votes.
"We have come here directly from the carnival in the Latvian Arts Academy. And since we are Latvian citizens we have come to vote against it," said a voter still dressed in her cat costume.
The vote is expected to fail but it's proponents hope it will still help to highlight and arouse debate on the divisions in the Latvian society to a wider public.
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