Mongolia's justice minister says five people
were killed Tuesday in a violent protest in the capital Ulaanbaatar over
Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Hundreds of others were injured Tuesday
after demonstrators burned the offices of the ruling party, accusing it of voter
fraud. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas.
The
violence led President Nambaryn Enkhbayar to declare a four-day state of
emergency, beginning after midnight Wednesday night. Under the presidential
decree, no public gathering will be allowed in Ulaanbaatar during the emergency
period.
The full results of the election have yet to be released, but
preliminary results show the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
winning more than 40 of parliament's 76 seats.
The head of the rival
Mongolian Democratic Party, which is predicted to have won more than 20 seats,
says his party will not accept the results of the race.
Both parties
campaigned on a promise to give cash payouts to every Mongolian from big mining
projects, including a major copper deposit in the Gobi desert.
The
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party ruled the country for much of the past
century as a one-party communist state, but introduced multi-party democracy and
market reforms in the 1990s.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.