MONGOLIA: Mongolia's politicians campaign for upcoming parliamentary elections

Record ID: 346622

  • Title: MONGOLIA: Mongolia's politicians campaign for upcoming parliamentary elections
  • Date: 27th June 2012
  • Summary: YOUNG GIRL HOLDING BALLOON AND CLAPPING
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mongolia
  • Country: Mongolia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZU2B37SFMZO2TIO1KFKQ77PX
  • Story Text: Candidates for a seat in Mongolia's legislature held their final campaigns on Tuesday (June 26), two days ahead of the country's parliamentary election.
    Prime minister Sukhbaatar Batbold led a final rally for his Mongolian People's Party (MPP), the country's oldest party, in the centre of capital Ulan Bator.
    Thursday's election will see the MPP fight it out with the Mongolian Democratic Party (MDP) to appease the masses on issues ranging from corruption to how to share the profits of the country's booming mining industry.
    MPP supporter, Damba Narangerel, said she felt her party was on the right track.
    "Generally, our party has been promoting young people and social welfare. I think through these things, they have improved the economy and society," she said.
    Current vice finance minister Chuluun Ganhuyag, an ambitious 39-year-old businessman, is a rising star in the MPP.
    Campaigning in an impoverished suburb of Ulan Bator on Tuesday, he made a last-ditch push for a seat in the Sukhbaatar district, which covers much of capital.
    After visiting voters in traditional ger tents, Ganhuyag said he was a fresh face for the 90-year-old party, and would work to foster a 'wolf economy' - the Mongolian equivalent of a tiger economy.
    "I'm very compassionate about my people and my country, and I want to be a driving force behind the reforms and the economic growth story for Mongolia, which I call a 'wolf economy'," he said.
    Not far away, former MDP prime minister Rinchinnyam Amarjargal was also making a bid for a seat in Sukhbaatar district, visiting traders in a meat and vegetable market.
    He said he would work to tackle unemployment.
    "To have a proper employment, a proper job, to have a proper income. I think this is the most important issue and we're trying to address the issue through bringing the benefits of the mining sector to the real sectors of the economy," he said.
    Mongolia's economy grew 17.3 percent in 2011, outpacing all in Asia, thanks mainly to foreign investment in huge mining projects.
    But long-term MDP voter Urnaa Baasandorj said he wanted to see more economic development.
    "The great improvement we have seen is that we have started selling our resources. The only thing I want to happen in Mongolia is greater development. I want Mongolia to be as prosperous as developed countries," he said.
    Competition for the 76 seats in the legislature - the State Great Khural - is fierce, and some expect neither party to gain a majority, forcing a coalition, either with each other, as happened in 2008, or with another party.
    The latest polls suggest the MDP has now moved ahead of the centre-left MPP.
    But public frustration with established parties has led to an increase in popularity for former President Nambar Enkhbayar, who fell out with the MPP and formed his own party using the MPP's old name, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP).
    Enkhbayar has been excluded from the vote after corruption charges against him, but he continues to campaign for his party and his "justice coalition" could conceivably hold the balance of power in the new parliament.
    Currently out on bail and with a trial set for later in the summer, Enkhbayar said the corruption charges were a political plot to eliminate him.
    "All the totalitarian authorities worldwide try to use this word corruption and charge their political opponents. It's done in many post-Soviet republics. Unfortunately it's done in my own country, and I'm saying that this is very much a politically motivated case against me," he said.
    Recent polls suggested Enkhbayar was still the most popular political figure in the election, despite the charges against him.
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