Out in droves: Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai (second from right) dressed in deel, looks on as voters wait in line outside a polling station in Ulaanbataar. — AP
Bedecked in traditional Mongolian clothing, voters at a rural polling station drove up a muddy road to cast their ballot bright and early in the morning as the nation of 3.4 million goes to the polls.
The streets of Mongolia’s capital this week have thundered with the sounds of rallies and campaigners blaring slogans from cars plastered with posters as politicians make their final pitch to voters.
Mongolia’s democratic election, with its lively debate and multitude of choices, contrasts sharply with the political systems in neighbouring China and Russia.
More than an hour’s drive south of Ulaanbaatar, down a bumpy mud path in the county of Sergelen, the opening of the polls was a quintessentially Mongolian scene.
Moments before voting started, a cow strayed into the area surrounding the polling station – forcing an attending policeman to loudly shoo it away.
With the morning sun hanging low over the rolling hills, jaunty Mongolian pop played from a loudspeaker set up near the station as the national flag fluttered in the bracing wind.
Following a stirring rendition of the national anthem, election workers – many of whom work in kindergartens for most of the year – began ushering people in.
Voters young and old poured into the station from the moment polls opened at 7am local time yesterday, many wearing traditional Mongolian deel clothing.
Among them was one of the area’s oldest women, who greeted election workers, received her ballot and filled it in before sliding it into a voting machine.
Snacks sat by the door – a bowl of sweets and a plate of traditional Mongolian cheese.
First in line to vote was Batsaikan Battseren, 45, a local community leader representing the ruling Mongolian People’s Party and a former herder.
“I always want to be the first voter in every election,” he said.
“In our (area), I think every citizen should vote.”
He said voter participation in the area was 60% and that voters were more or less split in their loyalties between the ruling MPP – widely expected to win – and the main opposition Democratic Party.
Battseren’s main priority was ensuring his local community, which counts many livestock herders as members, gets the help it needs, he said.
“The wheat industry is exporting wheat in larger amounts when our domestic herders need it so desperately.”
But he pinned his hopes on the government and its establishment of a fund aimed at better redistributing the profits of Mongolia’s vast natural resources.
“I hope better times will come in the future.” — AFP
