Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene declared victory early Saturday in parliamentary elections, after a contest dominated by deepening public anger over corruption and the state of the economy.
People across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million, sandwiched between China and Russia, voted Friday to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural.
With 100% of votes counted by machine, the prime minister told a press conference in the capital Ulaanbaatar a few hours after polls closed that his ruling Mongolian People’s Party had won a majority of seats.
“According to the pre-results, the Mongolian People’s Party has 68 to 70 seats,” he said.
The votes are also being counted by hand to ensure accuracy and an official result was expected on Saturday. Results tallied by local media outlet Ikon based on official data also showed the MPP winning 68 seats, with the main opposition Democratic Party winning 42. The minor anti-corruption HUN party won eight, Ikon reported. Voter turnout was 69.3% nationally, a screen at the country’s Electoral Commission headquarters showed.
Tsagaantsooj Dulamsuren, a 36-year-old cashier pregnant with her fourth child, told AFP that the election offered her a chance to “give power to the candidates you really want to support.”
“I want lawmakers to provide more infrastructure development… and more jobs in the manufacturing industry for young people,” she said outside a polling station at a hospital near the capital.
Analysts had expected the MPP to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016 and govern for another four years. They say the party can credit much of its success to a bonanza over the past decade in coal mining that fuelled double-digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living, as well as to a formidable party machine and a weak, fractured opposition.
Yet there is deep public frustration over endemic corruption, as well as the high cost of living and lack of opportunities for young people who make up almost two-thirds of the population. There is also a widespread belief that the proceeds of the coal-mining boom are being hoarded by a wealthy elite − a view that has sparked frequent protests.
Long lines of voters
Parties are required by law to ensure that 30% of candidates are women in a country where politics is dominated by men.
Long lines snaked around corridors at a polling station in a school in downtown Ulaanbaatar, with many voters wearing traditional clothing. Oyun-Erdene voted in a kindergarten in the capital, an AFP reporter saw.
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The prime minister told local TV after casting his ballot that he hoped the election would “open a new page of trust and cooperation between the state and citizens.”
‘We’ve done well’
Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index under Oyun-Erdene’s premiership. It has also fallen in press freedom rankings and campaigners say there has been a notable decline in the rule of law.
The MPP is the successor to the communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years. It remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling, nationwide campaign apparatus.