ULAN BATOR (AFP) — Thousands of people staged a violent protest in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday as they voiced 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 no sign of being quelled as night fell.
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 extremely rare.
As the rioters massed outside the building before the blaze, Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar spoke on television from inside, calling for restraint.
"The other party (the Democrats) is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair," he said, with his comments broadcast on Eagle Television.
"We now request that everyone should stop this chaotic protest immediately."
Bayar accused Democratic Party leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj of being responsible for the unrest.
"Elbegdorj made a false announcement and he is misleading people and inciting violence," said Bayar, whose movements from within the building after the unrest broke out were not immediately known.
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."
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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