Counting of votes continues in Mongolia’s parliamentary election as part of efforts to woo disenchanted voters

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (AP) — Votes were being counted in Mongolia’s parliamentary election on Friday, as both new and old political parties sought to win over young voters eager for business.

Initial results were expected to take place Saturday morning, but voting ended at 10 p.m. in the vast but densely populated country, which sits between China and Russia, two very large authoritarian states.

There were 126 seats at stake in the expanded Parliament, 50 more than before. elections in 2020, That duel once resulted in a landslide during a Mongolian public celebration. The ruling party still appears to have the upper hand, although alternative parties may be able to take advantage voter dissatisfaction To consume in its majority.

About two voters were hiding on the stairs leading to a polling station on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar on Friday morning, with some court cases bubbling up as the court opened 10 minutes ahead of schedule. One of the most used was the votive attire, accompanied by leaders of the population, wearing formal silk gowns with huge leather-based belts of the past.

Inside, voters filled out their ballots behind a small display screen and then fed them into a digital vote counting system. Before he left, a red dot was placed with a marker on one of his index fingers to prevent him from voting again.

As of 10 pm, when polling closed, turnout was 69.3% and was expected to reach 70% after results from far-flung districts and adding in voting outside the country.

Mongolia, which has a population of about 4.4 million, became independent in 1990 from more than six decades of one-party communist rule. While much of the population has welcomed the freedoms that came with the end of the communist system, many have become cynical towards the Parliament and its individuals, seeing them as basically running out of harm to themselves and their business friends.

The Mongolian Janata Party has identified those issues but has largely blamed them on alternative political developments.

The prime minister, Oyun-Erdene Lovesannamsaray, said on Friday that independence and trust in parliament are undermined when personal entertainment is put ahead of national entertainment. He called for a new page of cooperation between the government and the voters after the first three decades of independence.

“Today, a completely new 30 years are beginning in the history of Mongolia,” he then instructed several journalists conducting their survey. “Let us all together see how this representative Parliament will function and how the political parties will perform.”

The polling station is in a “ger” district on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, where many of the population first lived in nomadic tents and then relocated to the capital. It is a poor section, now mostly a jumble of simple houses, some still having tents in their courtyards.

Many residents of the district, especially the former Soviet Union, support the celebration of the masses, which ran the country in the communist period and later transformed itself into a centre-left party in the democratic period.

Naranchimeg Lamjaw, a 69-year-old Public Party member and leader of the elderly population, was one of half a dozen voters in formal outfits who arrived at the polling station ahead of the scheduled time of 7am.

“I support the current government led by Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene as they establish justice and usher in a new 30-year era,” she said, wearing a blue embroidered gown.

However, some young voters expressed unhappiness with Janata’s party and said they chose more youthful candidates whom they expected to lead the way.

Enkhmandakh Boldbaatar, 38, said he voted for neither the People’s Party nor the main opposition party, the Democratic Party, adding that they had not performed well. Nineteen parties are competing for seats in the parliament.

“I have been living here for 38 years, yet the area is the same,” he said. “Only this road and a few buildings were constructed. If he had worked for the people, things would have been different.”

corruption scandals Confidence in the executive and political parties has been lost. But yet the centre-right Democratic celebration, the HUN celebration, has emerged as a potential third drive in this election.

Along with corruption, the primary problems for voters include unemployment and inflation in the financial system, which collapsed first during the COVID-19 pandemic and then during the consequences of the war in Ukraine. were also village cattle herders crash through a “dzud” A combination of extreme climate and drought killed 7.1 million animals this year.

Ordering business and getting access to water in a water-scarce country weigh heavily on the minds of many herders, like Khanda Bayamba, 37, who lives in Dundgobi province in Mongolia’s Gobi barren region.

He told The Associated Press in an online interview that applicants promised aqua in pockets — where herders and miners are competing for scarce groundwater. Each are pillars of Mongolia’s financial system.

“Global warming and climate change are very serious in Mongolia. Gobi is in dire need of water. It is highly doubtful whether they will fulfill their promises or not,” she said.

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Associated Press essayist Anirudh Ghoshal in Hanoi, Vietnam contributed to this file.