Former martial arts champion Khaltmaa Battulga poised to win Mongolian presidential election
The new president will inherit a US$5.5 billion IMF-led bailout designed to stabilise its economy and lessen its dependence on China, which purchases 80 per cent of Mongolian exports
A brash businessman with martial arts skills was leading Mongolia’s first-ever presidential run-off election early on Saturday after a scandal-plagued race to take the helm of the resource-rich but debt-laden country.
Khaltmaa Battulga of the opposition Democratic Party (DP), a 54-year-old former world champion in the Soviet martial art Sambo, had 50.7 per cent of the vote with 87 per cent of ballots counted, according to the General Election Commission.
“Mongolia has won,” Battulga said at a press conference, though the commission will announce the winner later on Saturday. “I will start work straight away to resolve the economic difficulties and make Mongolians debt-free as I promised.”
Parliament speaker Mieygombo Enkhbold of the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), which holds the majority in the legislature, was behind with 41 per cent. Some 8.3 per cent of the votes were blank ballots.
Many voters in the vast nation of 3 million people sandwiched between Russia and China were so fed up with their politicians that they launched a campaign to submit unmarked ballots.
A candidate must win more than 50 per cent of the votes to be declared the winner. If neither candidate reaches this number, the parties are required to nominate different representatives for an entirely new election.