Mongolia’s Parliament elected Miyeegombo Enkhbold, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party’s chairperson, as the country’s new prime minister on Wednesday, Chinese state media said.
The election of Enkhbold (41) a former Ulan Bator mayor, marks an end to the political upheaval that emerged this month after his party withdrew from a coalition government with the Democratic Party.
That withdrawal led to the downfall of the Democratic Party’s Tsakhia Elbegdorj as prime minister.
After being elected, Enkhbold promised his government would focus on speeding up the country’s economic development, China’s Xinhua news agency said.
Parliament’s election of Enkhbold was regarded as a formality now that his party enjoys a parliamentary majority with the support of minor parties.
The MPRP are former Communists who fashioned themselves as a centre-left party after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Democratic Party has embraced open-market reforms more wholeheartedly, but the two have many similar economic policies.
The MPRP has ruled Mongolia for nearly 70 years since the country was a Soviet satellite and has maintained significant clout since democracy was introduced in the early 1990s.
It won the first post-Soviet elections in 1992 but lost power for four years in 1996 before storming back in the 2000 poll to win 72 of the 76 parliamentary seats. It was initially forced into the coalition government with the Democratic Party after close elections in 2004. – AFP
