Mongolians hope for better future as they vote in parliamentary elections
International Herald Tribune writes that:
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia: Mongolians endured long lines Sunday to vote in parliamentary elections that they hope will improve their lives in this landlocked, mostly poor country.
The two major parties campaigned on the pledge to share more of the country’s natural wealth with the public.
“I’m eagerly casting my ballot with hope of better future for me and my family,” said Batnyam Boldsukh, 35, who is unemployed. “I really want what the parties have promised to come true.”
More than 350 candidates from 12 parties and one coalition are running for 76 seats in the State Great Khural, or parliament, election officials have said. Results will be announced Monday.
The two main political parties have focused their campaigns on how to tap recently discovered huge mineral deposits in the country, but disagree over whether the government or private sector should hold a majority stake.
The difference meant the outgoing parliament was unable to pass an amendment to the Minerals Law, which kept the government from concluding investment agreements with international mining giants to develop mineral deposits in the Gobi Desert.
The ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party won 39 seats four years ago, one seat short of a parliamentary majority. The next biggest win was 22 for the Mongolian Democratic Party. That meant that the country had to be led by a series of coalition governments, most recently by the MPRP’s Bayar Sanjaa.
The MPRP has promised to give each citizen a cash dividend of 1.5 million Tugrig dollars (US$1,300) once mining production starts. It will also set up a “Gift of the Motherland” fund similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays dividends to the state’s residents from oil revenues.
The Mongolian Democratic Party, on the other hand, has promised to issue a “Treasure Share” worth 1 million Tugrig dollars (US$860) to each citizen. It also would set up a public “Bayan Mongol” (Rich Mongol) corporation and make all Mongolians shareholders. The corporation would develop the mining deposits.
Tungalag Tsedendorj, a 58-year-old retiree dressed in brightly colored traditional Mongolian garb, said she has voted in every election since the 1990s — but this one has special significance.
“Mongolia must now decide how to develop in the future,” she said. “I live with my daughter and a grandson. Our income is not really enough. I’m voting with the hope that we will receive the ‘Gift of the Motherland’ in the future. This dividend will really help us.”
Bayar is popular in Mongolia because he is seen as tough on corruption. He wants international mining companies to invest in the country, but on Mongolia’s terms. After he took office in November 2007, he began renegotiating a draft ownership agreement for Tavan Tolgoi, a potentially huge coking coal project in the Gobi Desert that was owned by Energy Resources, a consortium of 14 Mongolian companies.
Another project in limbo is Oyu Tolgoi, a huge copper and gold project discovered by Ivanhoe Mining Ltd. The Canadian company negotiated an investment agreement in April 2007, but earlier this year the new administration pulled the agreement from parliamentary consideration, announcing its intention to hire an independent body to evaluate how best to continue the project.
The current Minerals Law gives the government the right to take up to a 50 percent interest in an important mineral deposit if state funds were used to discover it. It can take a 34 percent stake if state funds were not used.
The proposed change would give Mongolia a minimum 51 percent stake, regardless of who found the reserves. But while the MPRP wants the government to hold that stake, the Mongolian Democratic Party says private Mongolian companies should be able to hold it.
Parliamentary elections are held every four years in Mongolia, where more than 1.5 million registered voters out of the population of 2.6 million are eligible to vote. It is the fifth parliamentary election since 1990, when Mongolia stopped being a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/29/asia/AS-POL-Mongolia-Election.php
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