Mongolia's opposition democrats claimed what would be a stunning victory yesterday in parliamentary elections disputed by Prime Min-ister Nambaryn Enkhbayar who accused his rivals of widespread vote-rigging.
The prime minister's Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and Motherland Democratic Coalition (MDC) each won 36 seats in the Great Hural, or parliament, election committee officials said citing the first official preliminary result.
PHOTO: AFP
If officially confirmed by the election committee, the result would be a dramatic reversal for the MPRP, which had 72 seats in the 76-seat parliament before Sunday's polls and had been confident of an overwhelming victory.
The democratic coalition claimed victory by including three seats among their independent allies, which would mark a comeback for the democrats who were swept from power by the MPRP four years ago.
"The preliminary result is that the MPRP has 36 seats, the MDC has 36 seats, independents have three seats and the Mongolian Republican Party has one seat," said committee chairman Yadamsuren.
He said an official announcement was likely today after the commission verified results phoned in from 12 far-flung constituencies in a country where half the 2.7 million people are nomads and many voters travelled to polls by horseback or camel.
The MPRP, which ruled Mongolia for much of the 20th century as a one-party Soviet satellite, had been widely expected to skate to an easy victory after four years of economic stability in the impoverished country.
Now, Enkhbayar faces being ousted, though not without a fight.
"He [Enkhbayar] said there was a certain amount of irregularities in certain constituencies," said Tjalling Halbertsma, an adviser to the party chairman, citing the movement of people to vote outside their constituencies.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS