Let the race begin!

(Kyodo) _ The Mongolian presidential election campaign officially kicked off Friday with speeches, music and rallies as four candidate began vying for the top spot in one of the world’s youngest democracies.

Until May 20, the candidates will fly or drive around the landlocked East Asian nation to speak with some of the 1 million voters, including a rural nomadic population, about poverty alleviation and other key issues.

The leading contender is Nambariin Enkhbayar, a former prime minister backed by the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party. His main rival is Mendsaikhani Enkhsaikhan of the Democratic Party.

The two other candidates are businessmen representing the Republican and Motherland parties.

Whoever wins the vote on May 22 will lead the armed forces and represent the country in foreign relations. The 76-member parliament, of which the MPRP holds a majority of 37 seats, makes policy decisions.

People close to the race expect the campaign to focus on poverty relief for the nation’s 2.3 million people, who lost 14 million cattle in the harsh winter of 2001-2002. Crackdowns against corruption — an issue that sparks regular demonstrations on Central Square in downtown Ulaan Baatar — are also expected to prompt heated campaign debates.

Mongolia’s economy grew 10.9 percent in 2004, backed mainly by the mining industry.

“The MPRP’s position is we’d like to provide political stability to make this growth sustained,” said party secretary Yondon Otgonbayar. “We also need to fight poverty and social injustice.”

Some voters say money from economic growth goes to the nation’s top politicians, including the MPRP’s candidate, and that they pay to silence opponents.

“They’ve only got $20 million, but they want to be billionaires,” said Lee Cashell, an Ulaan Baatar businessman who follows local politics.

Corrupt politicians? What better way to start the season with than with a 2000 person protest?

About 2,000 people staged a peaceful protest Thursday outside Mongolia’s parliament, demanding that the government resign and accusing lawmakers of corruption. A leader of the parliament reportedly said lawmakers would consider the demands.

It was the second protest in three weeks by activists who say they were inspired in part by events in Kyrgyzstan, where demonstrators forced the Central Asian republic’s president from power.

“This government is a very corrupt government. We demand the government resign,” lawyer J. Batzandan, a leader of the protesters, said as they began a march to Sukhbatar Square in front of parliament.

Carrying signs saying “We demand the government resign,” the marchers stopped 120 meters (500 feet) from the front of the building on the vast plaza. Protests are banned on the square, but police didn’t try to block the march. Only about 20 officers stood guard outside the huge Soviet-style parliament building.
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The marchers included teachers, shopkeepers, unemployed workers and homeless people. They accuse parliament speaker Nambariin Enkhbayar, a former prime minister, of embezzlement and say graft is to blame for Mongolia’s chronic poverty.

They also want the government to create a mechanism for voters to recall elected officials accused of corruption and to end the ban on protests outside parliament.
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Parliamentary elections last year were marred by accusations from both sides of vote-buying and other abuses. No party won a majority, producing a power-sharing government with a prime minister and a parliament speaker from opposing parties.

The marchers also carried flags in the anti-corruption movement’s colors of yellow and white.

The presidential election is to be held on May 22, so they’ve still go about a month and a half left of campaigning left.