This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7479755.stm

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Mongolia votes in key elections Mongolia votes in key elections
(about 22 hours later)
Polls have opened in Mongolia, for the first general election in four years. Voting has ended in Mongolia in the country's fifth general election since independence in 1990.
Voters started queuing well before polling stations opened, many riding into villages on camel and horseback to cast their votes. Voter turnout was high after a long and gruelling campaign between the two main parties, the Democrats and the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
Mongolia's potential mineral wealth has been a campaign issue, with the two biggest parties both promising cash payments from big mining projects. Both parties promised large public payouts from budget surpluses provided by the growing mining industry.
A recent survey suggested inflation had outstripped unemployment and corruption as ordinary Mongolians' main concern. The 2004 election saw the two parties forced into a fragile coalition that produced three prime ministers.
More than 1,800 polling stations opened on Sunday morning. In towns they have been set up inside schools, libraries and gymnasiums. New voting system
In the remote countryside voting is taking place inside gers, tent-like structures that nomads use as a home. At a polling station in Ulan Bator's Sukhbaatar District, an election official announced an end to a long day of voting.
The gers are visited by nomads, some of whom have ridden up to 30km on camel and horseback to cast their votes. Election observers from half a dozen political parties carefully recorded the proceedings on video camera as the volunteers prepared to begin the process of counting ballots.
In the capital, Ulan Bator, many voters turned up to vote wearing the traditional deel, a silk cloak tied with a sash. Voting at polling station number 23 went smoothly, the station master reported.
The BBC's Michael Kohn in Ulan Bator says that for Mongolians, elections are something of a national holiday and the General Election Committee is predicting a turnout of at least 70%. Indeed, there were no major problems reported at any of the country's nearly 2,000 polling stations.
The first voters at polling stations were honoured elders who were sent invitations by district officials to cast the first ballots of the day. The General Election Committee said that voter turnout was high.
Voting will end on Sunday evening local time and the first results are expected on Monday morning. Their latest figures reveal that 74% of registered voters cast a ballot.
With polling over, activists from the Democrats and the MPRP retreated to their respective offices to await the results.
But a new multi-mandate system of voting means that ballot counting will take longer than usual, because each ballot will have up to three circled names.
Although results have previously been known by the morning after an election, officials warn that this one might take several days to sort out.