The Mongolian People's Revolu-tionary Party (MPRP), recovering from a glitzy overnight rally starring rap singers and dancers, yesterday expressed high hopes it would be re-elected tomorrow after providing four years of stability.
The MPRP has 72 seats in the 76-seat "Great Hural," or parliament, and is widely expected to be returned to power in one of the world's poorest and most sparsely populated countries, probably losing just a handful of seats to a divided opposition.
"Of course we will win," said MPRP political official Enkhtoer on Friday. "I am confident we will get the vast majority of seats."
PHOTO: REUTERS
At the campaign rally on Thursday featuring fireworks, balloons and a military band, Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar, campaigning on a platform of creating jobs, boosting growth and eliminating poverty in the land of nomadic herders, said the MPRP would solve the country's ills.
"Nothing is missing in our election program," he told thousands of party faithful. "The MPRP can solve all problems in our society today."
The opposition Motherland Democratic Coalition, without the funds of the MPRP, has run a deliberately low-key campaign and decried the government for wasting money on rallies, banners and television campaigning.
"We really cannot predict what the result will be," said coalition election campaign official Gantulga. "We'll get some seats but it is difficult at this point to say how many."
Analysts say the opposition will win some votes in protest against the perceived arrogance of the MPRP but that the coalition has no clear policy.
Ulan Bator has not exactly been grabbed by election fever but the MPRP, which ruled for 75 years until 1996 -- most of that time as a one-party Soviet satellite -- has erected billboards and posters around the city targeting youth.
Its banners show young, smiling families and promise the creation of 145,000 new jobs.
The party, which sent 180 troops to Iraq as part of the US-led coalition force, is also campaigning for "increased global security."
"I am afraid that the MPRP will get the majority again and then our freedoms will be restricted for another four years," said Naraa on the streets of the capital.
The MPRP returned to power in 2000 on a wave of popular anger against the bitterly divided Democratic Union coalition government and economic austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
Since then, opposition politicians have accused the MPRP of using its overwhelming majority in the Great Hural to curb media freedoms and soft-pedal on economic reforms, charges the government has denied.
Enkhbayar, whose biggest achievement was the cancellation of 98 percent of Mongolia's Soviet-era debt, conceded last week that four years of MPRP rule had not succeeded in eliminating poverty.
But he said the country, half the size of Western Europe but with a population of only a third of Hong Kong, had endured three devastating winters, three years of drought and three years of falling cashmere, copper and gold prices -- its staple products.
Zavkhlant, a businessman sitting in an open-air restaurant in the capital, said the opposition could win as many as 26 seats in parliament if voters hold their nerve.
"There are prospects for more seats if people's sentiment stays the same for the next few days," he said.
About half Mongolia's 2.7 million population are Nomads, with tens of millions of cattle, sheep, horses and camels grazing the vast meadows that cover four-fifths of the country, once the center of one of the world's greatest empires.
The results of tomorrow's election are expected early on Monday.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS