Mongolia's Obama?

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Meet Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Mongolia's new president. He sounds familiar.

By Mitch Moxley — Special to GlobalPost

Published: May 26, 2009 17:42 ET

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“We will follow the law,” said D. Dorjderem, an election supervisor at a voting station in Zuunmot village, about 45 minutes from the capital, after reprimanding an elderly couple for using the same voting booth. “The electoral process has to be open for everybody. Everyone must obey the law.”

Zuunmot, like much of Mongolia’s countryside, was Enkhbayar country, and the majority of voters streaming in and out of the secondary school gymnasium voting station marked their ballots for the leader of the MPRP, the former communist party.

“Enkhbayar is a good person, a good leader,” said N. Damba, 73, who showed up to vote wearing a deel, a traditional garment worn on special occasions. “Elbegdorj is a good politician, but he was already prime minister and didn’t get anything done.”

Ulan Bator, by contrast, voted strongly for Elbegdorj, who pledged to root out corruption and reform the judiciary. In a gritty neighborhood on the city outskirts where the majority of residents still live in traditional ger dwellings, M. Altangadas, a 50-year-old construction worker filling up buckets at a local water station, said it’s time for a change in Mongolian politics. “If Enkhbayar wins there will be riots,” he warned.

Now the hard work begins. Mongolia — with an economy that relies heavily on resources such as copper, coal and gold — has been hit hard by the global financial crisis and plummeting mineral prices. One-third of Mongolians live under the poverty line and unemployment is on the rise.

Elbegdorj’s victory could complicate a crucial $3 billion investment agreement involving the Oyu Tolgoi project, one of the world’s largest copper and gold reserves set to be developed by Ivanhoe Mines of Canada and Rio Tinto of Australia. The long-delayed agreement will likely be the blueprint for future mining projects in the resource-rich country. Elbegdorj, a populist, has promised to negotiate a better deal for the Mongolian people.

Whether Elbegdorj is really an agent of change will remain to be seen. But that didn't matter at Sukhbaatar Square on Monday, where the mood was decidedly hopeful.

“We’ve had democracy for 20 years,” said L. Rentsen, 72, a retired police officer and Democratic Party supporter for two decades. “Now we have the opportunity to be a rich country. In the future Mongolia can be great.”

In other words, Yes We Can.

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Who's pulling the strings in Afghan elections?

Malawi's musical elections

Japan: The Hatoyama dynasty

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