Mongolian Govt in crisis after mass resignations

More than half the ministers in Mongolia's coalition government resigned on Wednesday.

More than half the ministers in Mongolia's coalition government resigned on Wednesday, a diplomat and other sources in Ulan Bator said, throwing the nation's fledgling democracy into crisis.

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"Ten ministers of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) just resigned today," a Western diplomat in the capital said on condition of anonymity.

There are 18 ministers in the coalition government, a product of an uneasy alliance forged after national elections in 2004 between the MPRP -- the former communists -- and Prime Minister Tsakhia Elbegdorj's Democratic Party.

The diplomat said it was up to President Nambar Enkhbayar, the head of the MPRP, to accept the resignations. With parliament due to sit on Thursday, events were expected to unfold quickly.

Others in Ulan Bator -- including Bolormaa Luntan, the deputy editor of the independent Onoodor news agency -- confirmed the 10 MPRP members had resigned.

"They don't want to work with the prime minister anymore," Luntan said of the MPRP, which holds 38 of the 76 seats in the parliament, one short of a majority.

She said the resignations would most likely force Elbegdorj out of office.

"The 10 ministers' decision to resign should be enough, according to the law, to force the prime minister to step down," she said.

Elbegdorj's Democratic Party was meeting on Wednesday to discuss the situation, while Enkhbayar -- who also chairs the parliament -- could make a decision on the resignations as early as Thursday, Luntan said.

Soyoloo Munkhsoyol of the Open Society Forum, a non-governmental organisation funded by billionarie philanthropist George Soros, said much of the drama had been played out on national television.

"We just saw a discussion on television between the prime minister and the head of the MPRP (Miyeegombo Enkhbold)...the MPRP wants the prime minister to resign," Munkhsoyol said.

"The prime minister did not want to accept the resignations, they discussed and argued."

Elbegdorj formed his coalition after June 2004 parliamentary elections saw the electorate nearly split between his now-defunct Democratic Coalition and the MPRP, Mongolia's former Soviet-backed ruling party.

In sensational changes for Mongolian politics, the Democratic Coalition saw its seats in parliament rise from 4 to 34, while the MPRP secured 38.

In a political compromise following the elections, Elbegdorj was given the premiership, while former prime minister Enkhbayar was named to head the parliament.

But the political balance shifted in May last year when Enkbayar won the presidential election, giving the MPRP both the presidency and the leading role in parliament.

Following the presidential election the Democratic Coalition collapsed, leaving the main body of the group to rally around Elbegdorj in the loosely formed and newly named Democratic Party.

Democracy in Mongolia, the Central Asian nation most famous for its past under fearless warrior Genghis Khan, was instituted only in 1991, replacing 70 years of communist dictatorship under the Soviet Union.

Since then the political situation has been fluid but relatively peaceful.

US President George W Bush visited Mongolia in November last year to praise the nation as an outpost of stable democracy and thank it for its troop contribution to Iraq.

"You are an example of success for this region and the world," Bush said during his visit, the first by a US leader to the country.

"And I have come to tell you: as you build a free society in the heart of Central Asia, the American people stand with you."

Mongolia is stuck between China, the world's most powerful communist regime, and Russia, which is undergoing its own turbulent transition to democracy.