Mongolians cast ballots in parliamentary elections on Friday ( Jun 28 ), with the ruling party widely anticipated to win despite growing public apprehensions about corruption and the state of the economy.
across the tiny, lightly crowded country of 3. 4 million, sandwiched between China and Russia, are voting to appoint 126 members of the State Great Khural.
Surveys started at 7 a.m. local time, and will end at 10 p.m., with benefits anticipated later in the evening.
Tsagaantsooj Dulamsuren, a 36-year-old bookkeeper pregnant with her third baby, told AFP that Friday’s surveys offered her a chance to “give strength to the prospects you really want to help”.
I want politicians to invest in more equipment development. and more employment opportunities for young people in the developing sector,” she said while standing outside a voting place in a hospital close to the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.
According to analysts, the Mongolian People’s Party ( MPP ), under the leadership of Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, will continue to rule the nation for another four years and retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016.
A fierce party machine, a weak, damaged opposition, and a decade of coal mining that, according to the party, helped it achieve double-digit growth and considerably raised living standards.
There is also a lot of public outcry over widespread corruption, as well as the high cost of living, and a lack of opportunities for young people, who make up about two-thirds of the community.
There is also a common misconception that the profits from the coal mine boom are being steered away by the powerful elite, a notion that has sparked regular protests.
Large SPECTRUM
Despite Mongolia’s size, initial results are anticipated to be released within a few hours of the polls closing, thanks to integrated vote counting.
The roads of Ulaanbaatar, home to about half the population, have been decked out with bright campaign advertisements touting individuals from across the political spectrum, from populist entrepreneurs to patriots, campaigners and socialists.
In a nation where politics is dominated by men, parties are required by law to ensure that 30 % of their candidates are women.
Many people in traditional clothing lined the streets of Ulaanbaatar’s polling place while longer lines spanned the corridors.
Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene even voted in the area at a school, an AFP columnist saw.
The prime minister said in a statement to local TV that he hoped Friday’s voting had “open a new site of faith and cooperation between the state and people.”
Fresh VOTERS UNIMPRESSED
However, younger voters are mostly unconvinced by the ruling party’s pitch, and the Democratic Party’s inability to offer a viable alternative has contributed to the rise of small parties.
The centre-right anti-corruption HUN group is expected to increase its political picture through its social-media shrewd, expert individuals, who enjoy substantial support among the urban middle class.
Batsaikan Battseren, a 45-year-old community president, urged people to cast ballots at a polling station in remote Sergelen, an operational section that is located an hour’s drive from the money.
” Our city’s average cooperation is 60 per share,” the former farmer said, dressed in traditional Tibetan deel clothing.
But, he explained, “young people from 18 to 30 years old do n’t go to vote. “
” In previous elections, I would usually bring the youngsters who have just turned 18 to let them vote, but I could n’t ( convince them ) this year,” he said.
” Cultural CONTRACT”
Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index under Oyun-Erdene’s law.
Under the MPP, it has also fallen in the rankings for media freedom, and politicians claim there has been a marked decrease in the rule of law.
Some people fear that the prime minister’s ability to stifle the political freedoms of ordinary Mongolians if the ruling party wins a second term.
” I’ll refer to this vote as a vote on… Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene and whether he will manage to get a mission to modify Mongolia’s cultural deal,” Bayarlkhagva Munkhnaran, political analyst and former assistant on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP.
” This social contract will be about turning Mongolia into a proper electoral autocracy whereas, 10 years ago, Mongolia used to be respected as a liberal democracy,” he said.
The MPP is the group of communism that had a grip on Mongolia for nearly 70 times.
However, it remains popular, especially among remote, older voters, and commands a towering, nationwide campaign equipment.
Former president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who held office for the opposition Democratic Party from 2009 to 2017, hailed the start of the election on X on Friday morning, writing:” As the Mongolian saying goes ,’It is better to live by your own choice than according to others ‘ choices. ‘
” There are 260 international observers and 30 editors present. I aspire to real political and truthful elections. “