(5 Sep 2010)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Wide polling station exterior
2. Mid shot official locking the door of the polling station
3. Mid polling station staff carrying ballot box
4. Mid ballot box being overturned
5. Close of various ballots being handled
6. Close of ballot
7. Mid of staff counting ballots
8. Wide of staff counting ballots
9. Wide of Moldovan Central Election Commission news conference
10. Screen showing ballot data
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Iurie Ciocan, Secretary of Moldovan Central Election Commission +++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"It was 24 and (inaudible) but it was data for 6pm."
12. Close of camera at news conference
13. Wide of Iurie Ciocan leaving
STORYLINE:
Polling stations in Moldova's constitutional referendum closed across the country on Sunday evening after the day's voting.
At a news conference in the capital Chisinau after polls closed, Iurie Ciocan, secretary of the Moldovan Central Election Commission said they were still waiting to receive results from a few polling stations in the country and abroad.
The turnout for Sunday's poll was about one percentage point short of the one-third of the 2.66 million voters needed to make it valid, but votes were still to be counted from 75 polling stations abroad in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Russia, Ciocan said, meaning that the election was likely to be declared valid.
Some 600 thousand Moldovans live and work abroad, mainly in Italy, Greece and Russia.
Moldovans have gone to the polls to decide whether to elect the country's president by popular vote.
The country's constitution could be changed if half of the referendum participants vote affirmatively.
Polls showed that a majority favours the pro-European ruling alliance's proposal to abandon the current system, under which Parliament elects the president with a three-fifths majority.
The referendum is meant to free the former Soviet republic from political deadlock.
Final results are expected Monday.
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