Mongolia's ex-Premier Khurelsukh wins presidency by landslide

By Riyaz ul Khaliq and Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA(AA) – Former Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh has secured a landslide victory to become the sixth democratically elected president of Mongolia, according to results announced on Thursday.

Khurelsukh, the candidate for the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), received some 68% of the over 1.2 million votes cast in Wednesday’s national vote, the General Election Commission said in a statement.

His main rivals were Dangaasuren Enkhbat of the Right Person Electorate Coalition and the opposition Democratic Party’s candidate Sodnomzundui Erdene.

Enkhbat, a former state secretary for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, came in second with 20.3% of the votes, while Erdene, the former minister for population development and social protection, bagged just around 6% of the total.

According to the data, the voter turnout stood at 59.24% – some 1,208,408 people out of 2,041,985 registered voters cast their ballots.

A total of 71,937 blank ballot papers – 5.93% of all votes – were counted, said the electoral commission.

Khurelsukh, who served as prime minister since October 2017 and resigned amid protests this January, will take over from incumbent President Khaltmaa Battulga.

Battulga was barred from the race after a constitutional amendment in December 2019 limited presidents to a single six-year term in office instead of a renewable four-year term.

Under Mongolian law, the election commission is required to submit the final results of the presidential election for approval from the State Great Khural, the country’s unicameral parliament, within 10 days.