By Xinhua,
Ulan Bator : The swearing-in of Mongolia’s new parliament failed to be carried out on Wednesday after legislators from the main opposition Democratic Party walked out of the parliament session in protest at alleged vote fraud in the June parliamentary elections.
At the new parliament’s first session, the Mongolian General Committee of Election (MGCE) announced the election results for 66 seats in the 76-member parliament.
The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the Democratic Party, the two biggest parties in the new parliament, won 39 and 25 seats respectively. Two small parties won one seat each, with the remaining 10 seats in dispute.
But Tsakhia Elbegdorj, chairman of the Democratic Party, challenged the results at the session, saying there were fraudulent practices in the elections and asking the MGCE to compare the lists of voters with the lists of constituencies.
The MGCE has up to now failed to release full final results, Elbegdorj added, and demanded the postponement of the formation of the new parliament.
Legislators from the Democratic Party then walked out of the session.
Mongolia held its parliamentary elections on June 29, and preliminary results from the MGCE showed that the MPRP won the elections.
On July 1, supporters of the Democratic Party and other parties marched in protest against alleged voting fraud in the elections, and the protests turned into riots, in which five people died and more than 300 were injured.
The Democratic Party later tabled a motion, demanding the impeachment of the government led by the MPRP, accusing it of failing to take effective measures during the post-election riots.
The parliament rejected the impeachment motion on July 17.