21.   Several city councillors voiced objection to the projects during five hours of debate preceding the vote, saying they would be too costly during the economic crisis.

22.   Shekhar was speaking during debate preceding a vote on whether to ratify the Bihar takeover.

23.   Still, the campaign was more peaceful than previous years, when hundreds of people died in the days preceding the vote.

24.   The City Council chambers were packed for a public forum that preceded the vote.

25.   The four-day discussion that preceded the vote was emotional and wild at times.

26.   The latest counterattack is timed to precede a vote by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to condemn human rights abuses in China.

27.   The vote was preceded by seven days of often emotional parliamentary debate.

28.   Demonstrations by students and Hispanics had preceded the vote, and state officials nervously awaited protests Wednesday.

29.   The vote was preceded and followed by widespread brutality against independence supporters from pro-Jakarta militias supported by the Indonesian army.

30.   Under the new law, opinion polls will be permitted up to midnight on the Friday preceding the vote.