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ULAN BATOR - Thousands of people staged a violent protest in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday as they voiced outrage over what they claimed were rigged elections, forcing police to fire gunshots, witnesses said.
The headquarters of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was set alight, with Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar believed to be inside, according to the witnesses at the building.
The protesters from the rival Democratic Party, which claims the MPRP bought votes and used other tactics to win Sunday's election, threw stones at firefighters who arrived to put out the blaze.
However the flames appeared to be extinguished by people inside the six-storey building, with the unrest also broadcast live on the privately run Eagle Television station.
Politics in Mongolia, a country of 2.6 million people sandwiched between China and Russia, has a recent history of turmoil and disputes, but violence such as that seen on Tuesday is extremely rare.
As the rioters massed outside the building before the blaze, Bayar spoke on television from inside, calling for restraint.
"The other party (the Democrats) is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair. We now request that everyone should stop this chaotic protest immediately," he said on Eagle Television.
Bayar accused Democratic Party leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj of being responsible for the unrest.
"Elbegdorj made a false announcement and he is misleading people and inciting violence," Bayar said.
Police repeatedly fired what appeared to be rubber bullets into and above the crowd to quell the protests, according to a reporter for Eagle Television and a European journalist at the scene.
However there were no immediate signs of major injuries.
The MPRP, which ruled for decades under the protection of the former Soviet Union, says it won 45 seats in the 76-seat Great Hural while the Democrats have reportedly won 21 seats.
The General Election Committee has yet to make a formal announcement on the ballot.
"This election was run by one party. It is a false election," one of the protesters, Galsan-Namjillin Sukhbaatar, told AFP outside the MPRP's headquarters before the worst of the riots erupted.
"The communist party should not win. I stand for democracy and human rights, but we don't see that today in Mongolia."
The MPRP ruled Mongolia from its independence from the Chinese in 1921 until 1996, when it was beaten in elections by the Democratic Party.
In 2004, Mongolia's last general election, the MPRP and the Democrats nearly split the vote and were forced into a coalition that produced three different prime ministers.
The instability held up economic reforms and shook investor confidence, but the nation's economy still grew by 9.9 per cent last year thanks largely to its vast deposits of copper and gold. - AFP/ir
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