(3 Feb 2002) VOICED BY Tara Ogden
0000 Wide shot people queuing to vote
0004 Wide shot man voting
0007 Queue of people
0011 Woman placing ballot in box and getting ink put on finger to stop repeat voting
0018 Close-up voting form
0022 Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party, entering polling station to register
0027 Close-up registration card
0030 Rainsy placing ballot in box
0033 Rainsy having ink put on finger to prevent repeat voting
0037 Close-up finger with ink on
0040 SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party
0050 Prince Ranariddh, President of Funcinpec Party, voting
0054 Prince Ranariddh surrounded by media
0059 SOUNDBITE: (French) Prince Ranariddh, President of Funcinpec Party
0108 Various Xanana Gusmao, East Timorese independence leader, observing voting
0119 Queue of people
0123 Wide shot interior polling station
ENDS 0129
STORYLINE:
Cambodians have been streaming into polling booths to vote in the country's first ever local elections.
About 5.2 (m) million people are eligible to vote to elect representatives to the 1-thousand-621 governing councils for communes, or village clusters, which are currently ruled by government-appointed chiefs.
The elections won't affect Hun Sen's hold on power, but they are being seen as a step towards ending the unchallenged control he's maintained over Cambodian villages for more than two decades.
0003 Cambodians queued outside polling stations to vote in their country's first local elections.
0009 But observers say they're concerned that violence and intimidation against opponents of the ruling Cambodian People's Party are undermining the vote.
0018 More than 20 supporters of Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party - the main parties contesting the rule of Hun Sen's C-P-P - have been killed during the campaign.
0027 The body of another opposition candidate was found dead on Saturday.
0031 The C-P-P denies it's behind the killings.
0034 After voting, Sam Rainsy said he feared the C-P-P would maintain control over Cambodian villages.
0040 (SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party
"I think that the ruling party will use every trick to try to distort the will of the Cambodian people."
0050 Prince Ranariddh, president of the Funcinpec Party, also voted in the capital Phnom Penh on Sunday.
0056 He called for free and fair elections.
0059 (SOUNDBITE: (French) Prince Ranariddh, President of Funcinpec Party)
0101 "As the president of Funcinpec I want victory for my party, but let's all wish for the victory of democracy," he says.
0108 Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese independence leader, is among thousands of Cambodian and international observers.
0116 The elections won't effect Hun Sen's hold on power, but they are being seen as a step towards ending the control he's had over Cambodian villages for more than 20 years.
ENDS 0129
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