The opposition Mongolian People’s Party has won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections in the landlocked nation where a fall in commodity prices has sent the economy into a sharp decline. The head of the national election commission said Thursday that the MPP won 65 out of 76 seats in the national legislature, formally known as the State Grand Khural. The ruling Democratic Party won just nine seats while independents and smaller parties won two seats. The MPP is the former communist party that ruled Mongolia for 70 years before the country’s transition to democracy and a free market economy after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Under Mongolian law, the majority party in parliament forms a new government and appoints the prime minister and speaker of the legislature.
“The Mongolian people have put their trust in the MPP,” party chairman Enkhbold Miegombo said in a speech early Thursday. “We understand there is a huge responsibility behind this trust. We will work hard to improve the current economic situation and falling reputation of Mongolia in the international arena,” he said.
Enkhbold Zandaakhuu, speaker of the parliament and head of the Democratic Party, accepted the result, saying “the Mongolian people have made their choice. We will respect this choice.”
It was the seventh parliamentary election since the country peacefully transitioned to democracy in 1990, and the result puts the MPP in a prime position to retake the presidency in a vote next year.
Full Article: Ruling party defeated in Mongolian parliament elections | The Seattle Times.