ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, is unhappy with below-cost electricity rates that she says show her country has yet to fully shake off its socialist past.
'Mongolia became a democracy in the early 1990s after six decades of one-party communist rule. Many Mongolians welcomed the end of repression and resulting freedoms but have since soured on the parliament and established political parties. Lawmakers are widely seen as enriching themselves and their big business supporters from the nation's mineral wealth rather than using it to develop a country where poverty is widespread.
“I don’t think that free market has developed yet because the people are not used to this mentality,” she said. “People are afraid of competition.” Retired community leaders, one wearing service medals from the government, showed up before polls opened at 7 a.m. in an Ulaanbaatar neighborhood. Elders are pioneers, one said, coming first to encourage others to vote.
The proportion of female representatives rose from 17% to 25% in the new parliament, but most of those came in 48 seats that are allocated to parties based on their share of the vote. Female candidates did not do well in the head-to-head competition to represent 13 multi-member districts.