Mongolians have gone to the polls to elect a new national government as the country struggles to monetise its vast natural resources amid slumping demand for commodities from its largest trade partner, China.



The contest largely comes down to a choice between the ruling Democratic party and the opposition Mongolian People’s party.

Both campaigns have focused on economic development but have been light on concrete proposals for tackling voters’ other concerns, including improving the country’s educational and healthcare systems.

Before the election, voters expressed their frustration with the country’s poor governance and weakened economy, and many said they feared a repeat of 2008 riots that followed claims of election tampering.

“[Politicians] have to fulfil all their promises. There are so many things to demand,” said Ganbaatareen Jargal, a 25-year-old construction worker, as he watched a campaign rally on Saturday in a slum district bordering the capital city Ulaanbaatar.

Although a trained mining engineer, Jargal said he had been forced to work on building sites due to the government’s failure to expand the resource sector.

Slowing growth in China, by far Mongolia’s biggest trade partner, has sent commodity prices collapsing, while political disagreements about who should own the country’s resources – and at what price – have stymied project development.

China’s economy grew 6.9% last year, the worst since 2009, meaning less demand for raw materials such as coal and copper.

Outside the capital, trucks with mobile ballot boxes crisscrossed the vast steppe delivering the polls to voters – often sick or elderly – unable to make the trek themselves, while herders and others streamed to gers – traditional Mongolian homes – set up by the government for country dwellers.

But although Mongolia has made enormous efforts to ensure participation in even the most isolated areas, enthusiasm for voting has waned in the 26 years since the young democracy threw off the yoke of Soviet influence.

Turnout has declined each election cycle, a trend that experts attribute to increased scepticism about the country’s political class.



“As the economic crises persist, there’s considerable mistrust in the political system,” Morris Rossabi, an expert on Mongolia at Columbia University, said, adding that voters are “facing increasing disillusionment with political parties”.

In May, a court ruling also changed the electoral system from a proportional setup to a plurality-based one, severely limiting the ability of any other than the two major parties from participating in the country’s governance.

The change raised allegations of a backroom power-sharing agreement between the two parties.

According to polling by the International Republican Institute, more than 60% of Mongolians feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Respondents said they would vote for the party that could best deliver economic development and jobs. But some voters are simply resigned to keeping the status quo for practical reasons.

“I’m going to vote for the Democratic party,” said Jargal, the construction worker. “If another party wins, they have to finish the job that the DP started … they’re going to waste four years, complaining that we had to restart everything because the DP made such a mess.”