Mongolian Leader Reelected Despite Shunning by Party
The former Communist Party of Mongolia conceded its first defeat Wednesday, admitting that the man it dumped as its candidate had won the country’s first direct presidential election last Sunday.
Budragchaagiin Dashyondon, chairman of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), pledged to respect the reelection of President Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat.
He told a news conference that Ochirbat had won 57.8% of the vote to 38.7% for his party’s candidate, Lodongiyn Tudev.
Ochirbat defected from the party to run as an opposition candidate after the party dumped him in favor of Tudev, a conservative newspaper editor, in April.
The loss is the party’s first in 72 years. For all but three of those years, it ran Mongolia as a one-party Communist state, closely allied with the Soviet Union.
The MPRP chairman said the party-controlled People’s Great Hural, or Parliament, will support the popular choice.
Parliamentary support is the only obstacle between Ochirbat and a second four-year term.
The constitution gives Parliament the right either to ratify the popular choice for president or to call a new election.
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