Ulaanbaatar
Voting underway nationwide for 2020 local council elections
Politics
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Voting in Mongolia’s elections of the Citizens’ Representative Khurals (local council) of 21 aimags, capital city of Ulaanbaatar, 330 soums and 9 districts began nationwide at 7 AM, October 15, Thursday, and will continue through 8 PM, the same day.
Around 21,400 civil servants are working at 2,148 polling stations across the country in organizing the voting and to ensure that COVID-19 precautions and safety measures are in place throughout the elections.
In line with the temporary regulation for the prevention of COVID-19 spread during the elections, approved by the government on September 30, all polling stations have been disinfected and provided with disposable protective face masks and gloves to distribute to the voters, if necessary, to prevent coronavirus infections.
For the local council elections, there are 816 mandates for aimag and capital city-level Citizens’ Representative Khurals, while 7,353 seats are available at soum and district-level Citizens’ Representative Khurals.
17,149 candidates of 9 political parties and coalitions and independents are running for the local elections for 8,169 seats in total nationwide.
In particular, in aimag and capital city-level Citizens’ Representative Khural elections, 1,901 candidates are vying for the 816 seats, while in soum-level elections, 14,388 candidates are participating for 7,062 mandates, and 696 candidates for 291 seats at district-level local councils, according to the General Election Commission.
2,140,095 voting-age citizens are registered on the list of eligible voters countrywide and 1,004,256 of them are in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Those unable to visit the polling station by themselves have cast their vote through sealed mobile ballot boxes the day before the polling day and the ballot papers have been put into the voting machines as the polls opened.
