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ULAN BATOR : Polling stations closed Sunday across Mongolia, where high voter turnout capped a gruelling campaign between the two major parties, the Democrats and the ruling MPRP.
For weeks the rivals had engaged in a nasty exchange of mudslinging advertising and allegations of vote buying, but in the end the General Election Committee reported no major irregularities.
High voter turnout was reported across the country, with more than 80 percent in some areas. Vote counting began soon after the polls closed at 10pm local time, but results are not expected until Monday morning at the earliest. A new multi-mandate system of voting means counting could take longer than usual. Each ballot could have three names circled and candidates need to pass a 25% threshold to claim victory.
The Sant Maral Foundation, a non-profit which monitors voting trends, predicts the difficulty in ballot counting could hold up final results for several days.
Vote counting began soon after the polls closed at 10:00 pm (1400 GMT), but results are not expected until Monday morning at the earliest. A new voting process is widely expected to cause delays in counting.
The elections are widely viewed as a political re-shuffle necessary to kick-start mining legislation and business contracts left over by the outgoing parliament.
The nascent mining industry has given the government a budget surplus for the past three years and greater riches are expected from a soon-to-be tapped 38-billion-dollar copper deposit in the Gobi Desert.
The two major parties, the Democrats and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), have each promised large payouts to the general public if they win the election.
In the final days of campaigning the two remained close in tracking polls, but the non-profit Sant Maral Foundation gave a slight advantage to the MPRP.
"The Democrats made a promise to give one million tugrik (860 dollars) to every Mongolian, but they were trumped by the MPRP who offered 1.5 million tugrik," said Sant Maral director Luvsandendeviin Sumati.
"After that the Democrats had nothing else to offer."
In 2004, Mongolia's last general election, the two parties nearly split the vote and were forced into a fragile coalition that produced three different prime ministers.
The instability held up economic reforms and shook investor confidence but the economy still grew by an impressive 9.9 percent in 2007.
However, the electorate is hungry for new leadership and many voters have indicated they may switch to smaller parties and independents.
"I didn't vote for the Democrats or the MPRP," said 74-year-old Namkhai Sanjid as she left a polling station in Sukhbaatar.
"They have been in power for many years but didn't do enough for the people. So I chose young candidates."
Some 1,800 polling stations located in schools, libraries, gymnasiums and other public buildings accommodated Mongolia's 1.5 million eligible voters.
At a polling station in Yarmag, a poor neighbourhood of Ulan Bator, a group of 18-year-old women voting for the first time said they supported the Democrats.
"The Democrats are a young party. They have fresh ideas and they are creative. They can do something good for the country. The MPRP has been in power before but nothing has changed," said Olzii Enkhzaya.
In remote areas, nomadic herders cast ballots at temporary voting yurts scattered across the country's vast steppes and deserts.
Herders were expected to have to travel up to 30 or 40 kilometres (18 to 24 miles) to cast their ballots while election workers on motorbikes took "mobile ballot boxes" to people too old or sick to travel.
- AFP /ls
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