We woke yesterday to the results of this weekend's parliamentary elections. Much to the surprise of my friends and coworkers, the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), the former Communist party, won a majority of seats. The Democratic Party was nearly shut out. Predictions and polls prior to the election were that the Dems and the MPRP would take nearly equal portions of the available seats.
Rumors are flying that the elections were botched, rigged, or manipulated by the ruling MPRP party, which maintains strong relationships with the foreign mining sectors in Mongolia. International observers and journalists were present at polling stations, yet it's tough to say what really happened.
Reactions amongst my friends to the elections have been mixed. Some say that, though they personally voted against the MPRP, the party's continued stronghold will ensure that vital economic progress will not be disrupted by a power transition. Other friends say that the MPRP's quite incredible margin of victory is an example of democracy's downward slide.
On the heels of President Robert Mugabe's "victory" in Zimbabwe last week, I stopped to think about "free and fair elections." Mongolians voters were not pressured by violence from the incumbant party and opposition leaders were not jailed or beaten as happened to Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. To be sure, the elections were more humane in Mongolia. Yet, it's disappointing to see a nation untrusting of the electoral process, the institution most central to democracy.
Voter turnout in Mongolia was down sharply this weekend as compared to previous elections in 2004. It's no wonder voters become apathetic, when there is some truth to the notion that, no matter how one votes the anticipated outcome will remain the same. The whole situation has made me anxious for the coming US election in November. During the last presidential elections, I watched helplessly from my dorm room in Moscow and tried to decipher the Cyrillic charts and graphs to determine whether Kerry or Bush was ahead. I'm so happy that this year I'll be on US soil to watch the spectacle unfold for myself.
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