Ruling Party’s Win Is Official in Mongolia

Mongolia’s ruling ex-Communists have won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections by getting slightly more than half the popular vote against divided opposition, according to official results released Thursday.

The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won 70 of the 76 seats at stake in Sunday’s balloting for the Great Hural, Mongolia’s Parliament, election commission head S. Lhagvasuren told a news conference in Ulan Bator. The MPRP won 57% of the vote, with the rest divided among 13 opposition parties.

The balloting came amid a growing economic crisis as Mongolia seeks to move from a state-planned system to a Western-style economy.

The MPRP ran a one-party Communist state from 1921 to 1990. Under pressure from street protests, it agreed to begin democratic reforms two years ago. Since then it has officially abandoned communism in favor of multi-party democracy and a market economy.

Political and economic liberalization have moved forward rapidly. But the economy entered a sharp decline, partly because of dislocations caused by reforms and partly because of disruption of what had been extremely close ties to the former Soviet Union. The economy shrank by about 16% last year, according to official figures. Output has fallen again this year.

The key question in the wake of the election is what the MPRP will do now that it again enjoys an almost free hand in setting policy.

Some opposition leaders express deep pessimism.

Voters “have sold their freedom for a bowl of rice,” Social Democratic Party leader Bat-Erdenin Bat-Bayaar declared earlier this week, as indications of the size of the ruling party’s victory began to emerge.

An election grouping of three opposition parties, the Democratic Coalition, won 17% of the votes and four seats in the country’s new single-chamber Parliament. The Social Democrats took one seat with 10% of the vote. One seat went to an independent associated with the ruling party.