Mongolians set out on horses, camels, four-wheel drives and on foot yesterday to vote for the country?s next president after election stations opened across the windswept nation. Around 1 million of the 2.5 million people in the Central Asian country about three times the size of France were eligible to vote.

Volunteers in jeeps took ballot boxes deep into the rural grasslands so elderly people and others among Mongolia?s large nomadic population could vote from their round white ?ger? tents, but voter turnout was expected to be low because of scepticism and indifference toward the electoral process. ?I regret that a lot of young people don?t go to the polls?, Khuderbaatar, a park ranger.

Opinion polling last week gave a clear lead to Nambariin Enkhbayar, prime minister from 2000 to 2004 and head of the Mongolian People?s Revolutionary Party, followed by Mendsaikhanii Enkhsaikhan, also a former premier, of the Democratic Party. Bazarsadiin Jargalsaikhan of the Republican Party and Badarchiin Erdenebat from the Motherland New Socialist Democratic Party were polling lower.

?I voted for Enkhbayar because I think he is fair and very experienced?, Uranhaich, a 36-year-old woman said after voting at a village school near Ulan Bator. ?And I hope he will first of all create jobs for young people.? Mongolia?s economy grew 10.9 % in 2004, up from 5.5 % the previous year, as the country rebounded from droughts and famine and attracted mining investment. But a third of its people live below the poverty line.

The president has less direct power than its prime minister, currently Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of the Democrats, but commands the armed forces and has influence in the parliament. The election result could be announced today if one of then candidates gets more than 50 % of the vote; otherwise, the two top vote-getters will compete in a run-off.

Irja HALASZ