Mongolia: A Cunning Opposition Turns Tables

By JAMES BROOKE / The New York Times

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, July 7 - Voters in this literate, sparsely populated country between China and Russia have handed their governing party of former Communists an uncommon lesson that indicates that a young democracy may have come of age.

In a boisterous election 10 days ago that pitted guile against might, the country's 1.5 million voters cut the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party numbers in the 76-seat Parliament from 72 to 36. On Wednesday, the General Election Commission confirmed that the opposition, the Motherland Democratic Coalition, known as the Democrats, won 34 seats. The Democrats claim to have won two more seats, and have taken their argument to an administrative court. They are also wooing three independents in the hope of forming a government.



Although the court has three more weeks to govern, it is expected to announce its decision on the two contested seats by Friday, before most Mongolians disconnect from politics for Naadam, a four-day midsummer festival of horse races, archery contests and wrestling matches.

Now, with both sides claiming victory and the governing party fighting for the allegiance of the three independents as well, Mongolians are drawing up their chairs for a summer of political horse trading to see who will govern this grassy nation of nomads on China's northern border, which became a democracy only 14 years ago. Already they have experienced a political spectacle in which the governing party's advantages in money and power were neutralized by a tactical maneuver that American political operatives could only dream of. (Continua)