At the end of June, Democratic Party candidate Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj saw off a former wrestler to win re-election as president of the landlocked central Asian republic of Mongolia. Unlike many of the ‘democratic’ states that emerged from the post-1989 Soviet Union where power passed to former Communist apparatchiks, Mongolia has undergone an authentic transition.
Elbegdorj, a former journalist, was one of the leaders of the 1989 democratic movement, behind the initial demonstrations that led to a remarkably peaceful end to 73 years of Soviet-style rule.
