Mongolian poll results spark violence in the capital
Updated
Mongolia's government has declared a state of emergency amid violent protests in the capital, Ulan Bator, over alleged vote-rigging in weekend parliamentary elections. Dozens of police and demonstrators have been injured. National television says the emergency rule will last for four-days, there'll be a night curfew and no public gatherings will be allowed.
Presenter:Rob Sharp
Speaker: Professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat with responsibility for Mongolia, now at Brock University in Ontario
BURTON: Well it's pretty grim, there's been a four day state of emergency declared and the demonstrations continues with the losing party throwing firebombs at the ruling party's headquarters and various other kinds of disruptions. So it doesn't look at all good.
SHARP: So what has actually sparked the violence?
BURTON: Well I think that there's a feeling that the elections were not run fairly by the democratic party. I think the subtext to this is really Mongolians concerned about how their natural resources are being exploited in terms of the degree of foreign investment in their copper and gold, which is very significant to that economy, they've had quite a good rate of growth in the past year, about nine-point-nine per cent. And the question really is should foreign companies be gaining profits from those resources or should the profits be kept within Mongolian, therefore the exploitation of them done indigenously by Mongolian companies as opposed to the foreign companies, which the ruling party has been encouraging to invest in that sector.
SHARP: Mongolia has had a fairly rough time economically since the fall of the Soviet Union indeed, but the transition has to date been relatively peaceful. Are you surprised by what's happened then?
BURTON: Yes I am surprised that it's broken out into violence. Mongolian political system has been largely consensual and there have been a number of coalition governments and it seems that it's not a country which has been given to this kind of violence before, and so it is a cause of some concern and could really impact quite negatively on investor confidence in Mongolia which would naturally affect the development of the economy, and it's still a relatively poor country and one which can use all the investment they can get.
SHARP: The main opposition is claiming the election was rigged, but international observers Dr Burton are saying overall the poll was free and fair?
BURTON: Yes I think that it's hard for us to assess from outside but we don't have any indications of the kind of election fraud and vote buying that the opposition party is alleging.
SHARP: Do we have any idea at this stage what role the President has been playing?
BURTON: Well I think he's been playing a positive role. The President was associated with the ruling party, but he's ostensibly neutral in the parliamentary system they have there. They did have a meeting between all the leaders which the President called and was broadcast on television and so it seems that the President's attempting to try and bring the sides together and bring about a peaceful resolution, but obviously he's failed because the situation's getting worse and the violence is increasing not reducing.
SHARP: What's likely to be the next step do you think?
BURTON: Well I really don't know how they're going to address this kind of issue. I don't see any room for compromise in terms of the fundamental issue, and the fact that the opposition party feels that they've been robbed of the votes that they should have had and that the dominance of the ruling party doesn't reflect the will of the people is a hard one to counter. Mind you the ruling party's lead in terms of seats in parliament is quite substantial, so it's not as if we're just talking about a very close election that might hinge on just a couple of disputed ridings. It's a big difference, so I don't see how the government can address the cause of the anger that the opposition party seems to be inspiring its members to engage in this kind of civil protest of a really very violent nature.
