\n<\/p>\n
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) \u2014 Voters in Mongolia are electing a new parliament on Friday in their landlocked democracy that is squeezed between China and Russia, two much larger authoritarian states.<\/p>\n
At stake are 126 seats in an expanded parliament, 50 more than in the previous election in 2020<\/a>. That contest was won by the Mongolian People’s Party in a landslide. The ruling party still appears to hold the upper hand, but other parties may be able to capitalize on voter discontent<\/a> to eat into its majority.<\/p>\n There are 2,198 polling stations spread out across the sparsely populated country, which is large geographically but has a population of only 3.4 million people. The voting stations close at 10 p.m. (1400 GMT) with preliminary results expected early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n Mongolia became a democracy in 1990, ending more than six decades of one-party communist rule under the same People’s Party that is in power today. The ruling party has transformed into a center-left party in the democratic era.<\/p>\n The main opposition has been the Democratic Party, a center-right party, though the HUN Party has emerged in this election as a potential third force.<\/p>\n Many voters have come to view the parliament as \u201cthieves\u201d bent on enriching themselves and their business friends though the public treasury. Corruption scandals<\/a> have eroded confidence in the government and political parties.<\/p>\n Besides corruption, major issues for voters include unemployment and inflation in an economy rocked first by the Covid-19 pandemic and then the fallout from the war in Ukraine. The country’s livestock herders were also hit by a \u201cdzud\u201d<\/a> this year, a combination of severe weather and drought, that killed 7.1 million animals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n