Thousands of demonstrators have clashed with police in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator amid protests over last weekend's general election.

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Preliminary results from Sunday's poll give the MPRP a clear victory, but the opposition Democrats allege fraud.

Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar blamed the opposition for inciting violence.

"The other party [the Democrats] is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair," Mr Bayar said in a televised address.

He said the Democratic Party leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj "made a false statement and he is misleading people and inciting violence".

Mr Elbegdorj earlier said the Democrats had been robbed of victory.

"People voted for democracy, ask eight of 10 people and they will say they voted for the Democratic Party," he told reporters.

"If most people voted for us why did we lose? We lost because... corrupt people changed the results," Mr Elbegdorj added.

Early results from the election suggest the ruling MPRP had taken at least 43 seats in the 76-seat parliament, or Great Hural.

Competing for resources

In the 20th Century, Mongolia's government was modelled on the Communist system of the neighbouring Soviet Union, until 1990 when multi-party politics were introduced.

With an economy based on nomadic herding, Mongolia was heavily reliant on support from Moscow, but when this was withdrawn its financial systems quickly collapsed.

During the difficult intervening period, the former Communists, the MPRP, and the emergent Democratic Party have competed for power.

Four years ago, they were obliged to form a coalition, but in 2006 they broke apart again acrimoniously. Since then the MPRP has hung on to power through alliances with splinter parties.

Despite years of political unease, politics in Mongolia was relatively calm as long as the country was poor, the BBC's David Bamford says.

But that has changed, as the previously untapped and considerable mineral wealth of the vast Mongolian plateau starts to be exploited, our correspondent says.

(BBC)

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