ULAANBAATAR (AFP) – Mongolia’s ruling party emerged from this week’s polls with its parliamentary majority significantly diminished yesterday, local media said, after a campaign dominated by graft fears and the state of the economy.
Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene early yesterday morning declared victory in the previous day’s polls, in which millions of Mongolians turned out to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural, the country’s unicameral Parliament.
And yesterday, local media outlet Ikon – collating figures provide by the country’s General Election Commission – reported the ruling Mongolian People’s Party had won 68 seats, giving it a majority of four.
The main opposition Democratic Party won 42, Ikon reported, while the minor anti-corruption HUN party won eight. Smaller parties won eight seats between them.
And at a press conference yesterday afternoon in the capital Ulaanbaatar, the head of the Electoral Commission said there remained some votes to be counted by hand to verify results collated by machines.
“Only six to seven polling station are remaining, but the hand counting matches the machines 100 per cent,” he said.
