[Ben] Mon - Will he make it?

|

Badarchiin Erdenebat, head of the Motherland Party and former defence minister of Mongolia (...and active businessman), will run for presidency. People assumed he will run long ago, but now it is official.

However, he has got a long way to go. While Mongolei.net reports that top-favourite Nambariin Enkhbayar's chances for election dropped from 40 to 37 percent, his top contender Enkhsaihan's chances increased lightly, according to the same source. But, one should not underestimate the new entrant:

'Erdenebat was the best in the debates. He spoke like a president,' Bayaraa, a professional driver in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, said on Thursday, echoing others in the television audience.

And, there are already protests heating up in the capital Ulan Bator against the General Election Commission. Apparently, they printed some extra 80,000 voter IDs allegedly given to Enkhbayar's voters.

I am stunned about how professional the websites of the candidates and the Mongolian parliament are.

On a general note:

The economy rebounds:

Mongolia's economy grew 10.9 percent in 2004, up from 5.5 percent the previous year, according to government figures, as the country rebounded from droughts and famine in 2000 and 2001 and attracted mining investment from the likes of Canadian firm Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

...while poverty persists:

But a third of Mongolia's 2.5 million people still live below the poverty line in a nation about three times the size of France.

The UNDP Human Development Report 2003 Mongolia is here, containing lots of useful information for the interested reader. Interestingly, the UNDP's Human Development Index surpassed its 1990 level in 1999, making it one of the few countries in the wider Central Asian region to regenerate improvements in living standards vis-à-vis the Soviet period.

See also yesterday's post.