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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (260301)	9/14/2003 2:40:30 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Sweden Votes to Adopt Euro By Peter Starck Reuters Sunday, September 14, 2003; 11:44 AM STOCKHOLM, Sept 14 -- Swedes voted on Sunday on scrapping the crown to become the 13th member of the euro after opinion polls showed sympathy votes for slain pro-euro Foreign Minister Anna Lindh eroding the "No" side's long-standing lead. Nearly all votes should be counted 2-1/2 hours after polls close at 1800 GMT, but victors' celebrations were likely to be muted as more red roses, poems and children's drawings piled up outside the store where Lindh was stabbed on Wednesday. Her killer remained at large, evoking painful memories of the unsolved assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Police circulated security video footage of their main suspect, a dark-haired man in a baseball cap. "We would like to have even more help from the public with identifying this man in the picture," said police spokesman Mats Nylen. "We are very anxious to find out his identity." Some late polls showed a surge in support for the "Yes" side after Lindh's murder. The centre-left government, mainstream political parties and big business have all backed the euro, but lagged the grassroots "No" campaign since April. "The killing will influence people to vote 'Yes'. But I still think that the result will be 'No'," said Lena Winqvist, a 52-year-old accountant. EURO JUDGEMENT A "No" would keep Sweden outside euroland along with Britain and Denmark, while a "Yes" would make it the first European Union state to endorse the euro at the ballot box since the currency's launch amid great fanfare in 1999. The Danes rejected the euro in a September 2000 referendum, which the "No" side won by 53-47 percent. Britain has no firm plans as yet to set a vote on the currency. "This vote is very important for Sweden," former Prime Minister Carl Bildt said after casting his "Yes" ballot. Until the attack on Lindh in a Stockholm store, debate had focused on the euro's impact on Sweden's relative economic advantages over euroland -- where unemployment is higher and growth lower -- and what it would mean for Sweden's cherished cradle-to-grave welfare state. But the death of the popular 46-year-old minister, who was tipped as a future prime minister, led to a halt in campaigning. About 50,000 people in Stockholm demonstrated against violence on Friday, the biggest rally in Sweden since the Vietnam war. All parties have vowed to respect the vote's result, which in the case of a "Yes" result would mean Sweden switching to euros for all transactions in 2006 at the earliest. Some seven million people are eligible to vote. Election officials said there would be no word until polls close on voter turnout, traditionally about 80 percent in referendums. Polling station officials in and around Stockholm said early turnout was light, probably due to the sunny weather. "It has been quiet, but we may perhaps see a rush in the afternoon. Now people are out picking mushrooms and berries," said Jan Lundgren, a polling official at a small elementary school at the middle-class Taby suburb north of Stockholm. On Saturday, a Gallup poll put the "Yes" side one percentage point ahead at 43 percent -- the first to show the "No" side behind since March. But a Temo poll saw the "No" camp, which has support among women, the left and Greens, ahead at 46 percent. (Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Stockholm, Karin Lundback in Taby, Sofia Hilden in Nykoping and Brett Young in Helsinki) Full Legal Notice