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ULAN BATOR : The leader of Mongolia's Democratic Party insisted Thursday the national election had been "stolen" and demanded a recount after the poll watchdog said the rival MPRP had won in a landslide.
"I am deeply saddened that this vote was stolen. It was stolen and there needs to be a recount. The result is false," Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj told AFP from his office.
His comments came after the country's electoral watchdog told AFP the formerly communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) had won a 47-seat majority in the 76-seat parliament.
General Election Committee spokesman Purevdorjiin Naranbat also dismissed charges of vote-rigging that had touched off deadly riots.
However, Elbegdorj said he did not expect a recurrence of the street violence that erupted Tuesday after he first accused the MPRP of stealing the election.
"I think it will be resolved through negotiation. I don't think there will be more violence," he said.
Riot police and soldiers were called out to quell the unrest which saw around 8,000 people rampage through the city centre, damaging buildings, torching cars and pelting police with rocks.
The political violence was the worst in Mongolia since seven decades of the MRPR's Stalinist-style control ended and the country transitioned peacefully to a democratic model in 1992.
Since the early 1990s, political power in the impoverished landlocked nation of nearly three million people has shifted back and forth between the two parties.
- AFP /ls
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