Belarusians approve scrapping presidential term limits

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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SHOTLIST 17 October 2004 1. Exterior of government building 2. Various of ballots arriving and being counted by officials 18 October 2004 3. Central Elections Commission Chairwoman Lidiya Ermoshina at Belarus Central Electoral Commission 4. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Lidiya Ermoshina, Chairwoman, Central Elections Commission: "Five-million-four-hundred-and-one-thousand (5,401,000) people voted for the referendum questions, in other words 77.34 per cent of registered voters. And those are the preliminary results of the referendum." 5. Press 6. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Lidiya Ermoshina, Chairwoman, Central Elections Commission: "So the decision was taken by a large majority of people and to validate the referendum 50 per cent plus one was needed." 7. Press 8. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Lidiya Ermoshina, Chairwoman, Central Elections Commission: "If we didn't have the referendum we would have to invent it. The referendum unites the nation like nothing else would, and it is a lesson of patriotism to our younger generation, and I find it very important." 9. Screen 10. News conference at opposition headquarters - the Belarusian People's Front 11. Lights go out during news conference 12. Various of news conference continuing in dark 13. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Vyacheslav Hushkevich, Leader of an opposition party: "We knew that election results were rigged. We obtained papers that clearly show that the results were predetermined before voting ended. And the results were the same as one-hundred per cent falsification. Leaders of the opposition are being harassed, and we have to hold our press conference in the dark." 14. End of news conference 17 October 2004 15. Set-up shot of Yaroslav Romashuk, member of the opposition party, United Civil Party of Belarus 16. Newspaper headlines on computer screen 17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Yaroslav Romashuk, Member of United Civil Party of Belarus: "Lukashenko (President Alexander Lukashenko) is the guy who would like to turn himself into a presidential monarch. He has no checks and balances in his own country. He has built a fully fledged bureaucratic state where (inaudible) runs supreme. There is no independent court, no rule of law, no civil rights and liberties and people are deprived of the right to elect and be elected." 18. Set-up shot of Bogdan Klich, chairman of the European Parliament delegation 19. Front page of newspaper 20. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bogdan Klich, Chairman of the European Parliament delegation: "I would say the referendum ends elections in Belarus. Right now, Sunday afternoon, I can say that they (elections) were not fair and didn't give the equal rights to candidates and to opponents and of supporters of the possibility of extending the role and the rule of President Lukashenko next term. So in such a situation of non-equal rights, I can say that we can have many doubts for the future of the democratic process in Belarus." 21. Minsk 22. Two young people on bridge throwing flyers in road 23. Protest flyers 24. People picking flyers up STORYLINE Belarusians overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to scrap presidential term limits, according to the Central Elections chief, a move that would allow the former Soviet republic's authoritarian leader to seek a new term in 2006. Opposition figures claimed that Sunday's vote was rigged in order to allow Alexander Lukashenko, often branded as Europe's last dictator, to stay in power. He has led the nation of 10 million since 1994. Central Elections Commission Chairwoman Lidiya Ermoshina announced early on Monday that a preliminary tally of all the ballots showed that more than 77 per cent of the voters approved dropping the term limits. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/447562b745ee5b3e9828101b3dac0a5b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork