ULAN BATOR (AFP) — Thousands of people staged a violent protest in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday voicing outrage over what they claimed were rigged elections, forcing police to fire gunshots, witnesses said.
The headquarters of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party in the centre of Ulan Bator was set alight and looted, according to an AFP reporter and other witnesses on the scene.
The roughly 6,000 protesters from the rival Democratic Party, which claims the MPRP bought votes and used other tactics to win Sunday's election, threw rocks at firefighters who arrived to put out the blaze.
Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas but the clashes extended from mid afternoon and showed few signs of abating as night fell.
Up to 30 policemen and 25 civilians were injured and hospitalised in the rioting, according to television reports, citing officials and hospitals.
One Japanese citizen was also reported to have been among those hurt.
Politics in Mongolia, a country of 2.6 million people sandwiched between China and Russia, has a recent history of turmoil and disputes, but violence such as that seen on Tuesday is rare.
The unrest prompted the technically neutral President Nambariin Enkhbayar -- previously with the MPRP -- to call an emergency national security meeting that involved Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar and all opposition party leaders.
At the meeting broadcast live on the privately-run Eagle television, the MPRP affiliated Bayar renewed his calls for restraint while blaming the Democrats for inciting the rioters after losing the elections.
"The other party (the Democrats) is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair," Bayar said.
Democrat leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj countered that MPRP corruption had prompted the riots and torching of the MPRP building.
"The violence is not our fault, it is the fault of the MPRP that bought the election, that is what made people angry," he said.
Before the unrest erupted, Elbegdorj said bluntly "illegal activities" had robbed the Democrats of victory.
"People voted for democracy, ask eight of 10 people and they will say they voted for the Democratic Party. If most people voted for us why did we lose? We lost because... corrupt people changed the results," he told reporters.
"This was a dark moment in the history of Mongolia."
Although the number of demonstrators appeared to drop just before midnight, a lot of them were still in front of the smouldering MPRP building that was completely gutted, its windows smashed and its interior destroyed.
Riot police were seen chasing protesters away when many massed around bonfires nearby and started again throwing rocks and debris.
"Police arrested looters but we were overwhelmed. We didn't have enough protection or equipment to deal with this," T. Sainjargal, police director said.
The MPRP, which ruled for decades under the protection of the former Soviet Union, says it won 45 seats in the 76-seat Great Hural while the Democrats have reportedly won 21 seats.
The General Election Committee has yet to make a formal announcement on the ballot.
"This election was run by one party. It is a false election," one of the protesters, Galsan-Namjillin Sukhbaatar, told AFP outside the MPRP's headquarters.
"The communist party should not win. I stand for democracy and human rights, but we don't see that today in Mongolia."
Another protester, Enkhamgalan Dorjsuren, 34, said: "The people have come here to fight for their freedom."
The MPRP ruled Mongolia from its independence from the Chinese in 1921 until 1996, when it was beaten in elections by the Democratic Party.
In 2004, Mongolia's last general election, the MPRP and the Democrats nearly split the vote and were forced into a coalition that produced three different prime ministers.
The instability held up economic reforms and shook investor confidence, but the nation's economy still grew by 9.9 percent last year thanks largely to its vast deposits of copper and gold.
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