Referendum Day
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2013
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Millions of Zimbabweans vote on a new constitution - Andrew Harding, in Harare, quotes one government minister saying the document is the 'midwife' to a brand new future for the country. Jonathan Head talks of Burma's most famous resident, the Nobel prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi. Once revered as an icon, now she's having to get used to being heckled as she goes about her work as a politician. Louisa Loveluck talks of the crumbling Egyptian railway system and how it is starting to tarnish the reputation of the new government led by Mohammed Morsi. More than a billion Indians are about to get brand new state of the art identity cards. Peter Day says it's a bold move by the government -- but will it be a successful one? People in Jerusalem are awaiting the imminent arrival of Barack Obama. Kevin Connolly speculates on what may emerge from the trip and wonders if, afterwards, streets will be named in honour of the American president! The programme is produced by Tony Grant.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello from the from our own correspondent studios at Broadcasting House in London. |
| 0:04.8 | You've downloaded the latest edition of the program broadcast on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:09.2 | It's introduced by Kate Aide. |
| 0:11.8 | Today 550 train crashes a year, and still Egyptians wait for promised improvements to their railways. |
| 0:20.1 | Once an icon, now a mere politician, the Burmese opposition leader, |
| 0:24.2 | Aung San Suu Kyi, finds out what it's like to be heckled. |
| 0:28.3 | There's much at stake in India as 1.2 billion people |
| 0:32.2 | prepare to get their official identities, and Barak Obama's on his way to Israel. |
| 0:38.0 | But what must he do to get a street named after him? |
| 0:41.0 | But first, there's not much sign that in important referendums taking |
| 0:45.5 | place in Zimbabwe today. There are a few billboards telling people how they should |
| 0:50.3 | cast their votes on a new constitution for the country and not everyone |
| 0:54.4 | has a clear idea what's actually in the new document. The run-up to the poll has been |
| 0:59.8 | mostly peaceful, although a confrontation yesterday between supporters of |
| 1:04.2 | President Mugabe's Zarnu P.F. Party and their rivals, the Movement for Democratic |
| 1:08.8 | Change, left two MDC members injured. Andrew Harding says the vote's an important milestone on the road towards elections later this year, |
| 1:17.0 | which will determine how the countries run in the years ahead. |
| 1:21.0 | At his recent birthday party, President Robert Mugabe cut a |
| 1:24.1 | rather lonely figure. All my friends gone, he said to the assembled guests. |
| 1:28.5 | Also relatives gone and I continue to linger on. |
| 1:33.0 | Zimbabwe's leader is 89 now. |
| 1:35.0 | Most of the politicians in his coalition cabinet |
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