WRAP Voting underway in Russian presidential elections

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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(FIRST RUN 0715 ASIA PACIFIC LATE, 14 MARCH 2004) 1. Exterior of polling station in School 87 2. Interior of polling station 3. Various of old woman registering (FIRST RUN 0900 EUROPE MORNING, 14 MARCH 2004) 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila entering polling station No. 2039 5. Members of election commission sitting at desk, Mr and Mrs Putin taking seats 6. Member of election commission signing ballot 7. Vladimir Putin walking into voting booth 8. Mr and Mrs Putin walk towards electronic ballot-box, zoom in to Putin puts ballot paper into electronic ballot-box 9. Journalists 10. Mr and Mrs Putin leave polling station and approach journalists 11. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Vladimir Putin, President of Russia: "I am used to having high respect for my competitors and challengers and have had since the time I was actively involved in sport. My coaches taught me this. You have to respect your competitors because they honour you by standing up against you in a competition. I think all of them (the candidates for president) are worthy, and the (preliminary) results will be known tomorrow morning." (FIRST RUN 1300 EUROPE UPDATE, 14 MARCH 2004) 12. Nikolai Kharitonov, presidential candidate, and family registering 13. Journalists 14. Various of Kharitonov voting 15. Sergei Glazyev, presidential candidate, walks through crowd and enters polling booth 16. Glazyev voting 17. Exterior of polling station where Glazyev votes 18. Exterior of polling station where Irina Khakamada, presidential candidate, votes 19. Various of Irina Khakamada voting 20. Exterior of polling station 2378 21. Interior of polling station 22. Christian Strohal, Director of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, talking to guard 23. Old ladies registering 24. Poster of presidential candidates 25. SOUNDBITE: (English) Christian Strohal, Director of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights: "It''''''''s a complex observer mission with a lot of challenges because of the size of country. But it''''''''s also only the tip of an iceburg." 26. Screen graphic showing image of Russia 27. Wide shot of election officials STORYLINE: More than 40 percent of Russian voters cast ballots by mid-afternoon in Sunday''''''''s presidential election, suggesting that turnout would rise well above the 50 percent barrier despite a lackluster campaign dominated by incumbent President Vladimir Putin. Putin, who is looking for a strong turnout to give him a new four-year mandate, made a last-minute appeal to voters on Sunday amid Kremlin fears that the lack of any real competition would keep voters home. "The feeling of participation must grow, " Putin said after casting his ballot alongside his wife, Lyudmila, in Moscow. "Voters must understand the extent of responsibility when they make their choice ... much depends on this election." More than 50 percent of Russia''''''''s 109 million registered voters must cast ballots for the election to be valid. The Central Election Commission said that overall turnout was 42 percent as of 3 p.m. Moscow time (1200 GMT). Commission head Alexander Veshnyakov said that turnout was higher than in the December parliamentary elections, which saw 56 percent participation and gave Putin an obedient parliament. After voting ended in the Far East and eastern Siberia, election officials reported that most of those sparsely populated regions had topped 50 percent. Overall, the election was to last 22 hours, stretching over 11 time zones, before ending at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) Sunday in the enclave of Kaliningrad. Most Russians considered the election a one-man show. Some opposition candidates were also planning their own monitoring. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/32b1a405b8e3bb56588d73b928b3830a Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork