Candidate cries foul as Mongolia heads toward runoff vote

Ulan Bator: The third-place finisher in Mongolia's presidential vote cried foul and demanded a recount on Tuesday after electoral authorities declared he was narrowly beaten for a spot in next month's runoff election.

The drama capped a campaign marked by corruption scandals plaguing all three candidates that overshadowed voter concerns over unemployment in the debt-laden country wedged between Russia and China.

The result of Monday's vote was put off by several hours until Tuesday morning, angering supporters of Sainkhuu Ganbaatar of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP).

"We should recount it, otherwise we lose our democracy," Ganbaatar told AFP. "They are violating people's votes."

Former judoka Khaltmaa Battulga of the opposition Democratic Party finished first with 38 percent of the vote, the General Election Committee said, well short of the 51 percent majority needed to win outright. 

The country's electoral authorities said the runoff -- Mongolia's first ever -- would be held on July 9th. 

Ganbaatar had been in second place in the early vote count but he eventually was overtaken by parliament speaker Mieygombo Enkhbold of the Mongolian People's Party (MPP), who squeaked by with a 0.1 percentage point edge.

The MPRP filed a request for a recount with the committee and planned to do the same before the courts.

"I don't accept the results of the General Election Committee," Ganbaatar told a news conference. "Our citizens are fighting back. We can't accept this."

He added: "The Election Committee has become a place of fraudulent activity. It has made a mockery of our people."

Ganbaatar said a foreign person was on the election committee and influenced the vote, but he refused to elaborate on his claim.

Members of the MPRP held a protest at the General Election Committee office early Tuesday, said the head of the electoral body, Choizon Sodnomtseren.

Sodnomtseren defended the delay in announcing the result, saying someone had broken a broadband cable in Gobi-Altai province, preventing the results from several polling stations to be counted until Tuesday morning. He said it was an act of "deliberate sabotage".

The MPRP demanded that Sodnomtseren step down.

Slew of scandals

Ganbaatar, who was a surprise entry in the election, is a former independent legislator and trade union leader.

His candidacy was endangered during the campaign after a video emerged allegedly showing him receiving a $44,000 donation from a member of the South Korean-based Unification Church.

The other two candidates were also mired in controversy.

A video showed Enkhbold and two MPP officials discussing a $60 billion tugrik ($25 million) plan for selling government positions.

Battulga, a brash businessman, was haunted by reports of offshore accounts attached to his name, as well as the arrests of several of his associates by Mongolia's anti-corruption body last spring.

All three rejected the allegations against them.

The scandals meant voters heard little from the three candidates about unemployment and jobs, their top concerns according to opinion polls.

The resource-rich nation of just three million has struggled in recent years with mounting debt.

The next president will inherit a $5.5 billion bailout led by the International Monetary Fund and designed to stabilise its economy and lessen dependence on China, which purchases 80 percent of Mongolian exports.

The campaign was also marked by moments of anti-Chinese sentiment. Enkhbold published his family tree to rebuff claims that he had Chinese blood.