Steppe change

An election turns ugly

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Readers' comments



I just came back from a week in Mongolia for work - and my work involves meeting with Government officials, business people and others... I would strongly object to ariunbold's conspiracy theory, and even to the article's (and newgenerate's and buural's) strong linking of the riots to the election results and to politics. The political demonstration had essentially ended when rioting started, and rioters were clearly drunk, unemployed and disoccupied young men. Mongolia has a slums problem, a youth employment problem, a "sharing the dividends of growth" problem. This said, the country is generally rather on a good track and it can probably address them. Its politics are pretty OK by most standards, and most people there were outraged at the riots. The city was completely calm afterwards, and the "State of Emergency" was pretty soft (except for the vodka ban! a tough measure!!). Let's hope this will not be a real departure from 15 years of peaceful politics, but just an incident, as many countries can face (like France, Britain, the US and countless democracies which have known riots...)


Stuffing of ballot box, fake vote papers, mass print of excessive vote papers, fake registration of National IDs on people who deceased, abroad, and migrated to the cities, and all other tricks were the cunning character of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party at the 2008 parliamentary election. Lots of rumors and scandals suggest that MPRP has been advised by Black PR group from abroad and used their methods of rigging the election.International observers were present, unfortunately, they have been misinformed and cheated by the election officials, who showed cooperation on the surface and violated the election rules behind. Many people on the street say that their votes were to Democratic Party, and if the election proceeded fairly, the DP would have been a majority winner without question to the parliament.Most Mongolians are not happy with the election result that would restate MPRP for another 4 years of its fraud and corruption which were inherent practice of MPRP for last 18 years since Mongolian democratization in 1990. MPRP has always been seen as old styled backward political force that is divided within its party members and only unite for power and bribe interests. I did not like the name of this article "Steppe Change," considering Mongolian political context now being foreseen and perceived as backwardness and persistent corruption if MPRP becomes majority. The riots and protests amid at election aftermath, some say, are the deliberate attempt of MPRP to hide and cover its election fraud, by enraging and intensifying protestors and pushing them to burn its headquarter building, and to enrage the public against its political rivals and get support from the society the MPRP may have purposefully ordered its intelligence agencies to burn down the Art Gallery that Mongolians cherished. Generally speaking, the MPRP purposefully escalated the peaceful protest into widespread violence to cover its rigged election conducts and found an scapegoat over its rival parties therefore, gaining much needed political support from angry yet peace loving public. The outcome of this election is important to decide which party will get hold of Mongolian vast mineral reserves, their rights to transfer to third countries. Western countries, except Russia, may largely be held out of this divide of Mongolian mineral reserves and its exploitation rights as MPRP is close ally of Russian government.

Ben Reffell

I have to admit that Mongolia is one of the few Asian countries I do not know much about. If the International Observers were happy then we have to assume that the elections were fair, as that is the rule by which we judge all other countries elections.


It's sad that we all haven't fully woken up to Elbegdorj's unethical acts. It's even more sad that human lives were wasted and irreplaceable art collections (in the National Gallery) had to burn to ashes - victim to unworthy 'acts' instigated by him.


Elbegdorj should be ashamed of himself. Instigating violence by sweet-talking a drunken crowd into vandalizing and looting public property is not only grossly irresponsible but also shows lack of character and moral fiber.



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