Liberty Center Alert

Monday 1 p.m. June 28, 2004. Ulaanbaatar

 MONGOLIA: Success of Democratic Opposition Silences the MPRP Dominated Election Committee

 By Monday noon—fourteen hours since vote counting began in Mongolia's 2004 parliamentary election, Mongolian media is beginning to announce preliminary results. The Democratic Coalition and the MPRP have won at least 35-36 seats each and there is a chance that neither party will be able to form a government unless they are able to include three independent candidates (members of the Democratic Party) and the candidate from the Republican Party, or form a coalition government. However, official election results have yet to be announced by the Election Committee.

 The Liberty Center has received countless phone calls and complaints about the operation of the General Election Committee and the behavior of governmental organizations and staff. A short list of alleged election fraud by MPRP controlled government agencies including possible violations of election laws and ethics follows:

 The General Election Committee, of which only one member is non-MPRP, did not announce the names of the elected candidates from the Democratic Coalition although it did announce the wining MPRP candidates. The refusal of the Election Committee to announce Democratic Coalition winners gives time for vote stuffing and other fraudulent activities in order to reverse the election results in those constituencies.  

Hundreds of voters, mostly students and teenagers, were transported to/among Gobi-Altai, Arhangai, Huvsgul and other provinces in order to gain extra MPRP votes after the students voted in their local constituencies. The transported voters would have been unable to vote for the second or the third time unless such an operation was coordinated and supported by Election Committee branches – themselves dominated by the MPRP.

 Government offices, agencies and staff regardless their status or rank, were massively mobilized for the MPRP campaign. In many provinces, entire staffs of local offices, such as a land management office, and an educational agency, were sent on government paid “field missions” which in fact were political campaigns for the MPRP candidates.

 Official results of the election will be announced today as expected only if the General Election Committee discontinues its silence over the success of the Democratic Opposition.