Its comforting to know that the goal of Mongol Rally had a national curfew enstated in response to the riots, heck the van in the background of the AP Photo by Hao Lifeng could potentially be our Rally Van 2 months down the road if the riots continue.
While there’s no official statement from the Adventurists, it looks like the Mongol Rally is still all GO, so even though there is Martial Law a national curfew, I hope this hasn’t put a dampener on Mongolian Tourism (i.e. us visiting if we make it to the goal).
The story goes is that in the beginning on July, Mongolia had a presidential parlimentary election where 2 parties: Revolutionary and Democratic went head to head. I guess the majority of the population expected the Democratic Party to win by a landslide, but the election results gave the Revolutionary Party (sucessor to the Communist Party) the win due to expected fraud. (Sound familar US 2000 and 2004 Elections with G Dubbyah?)
So what started out as a peaceful demonstration outside the Revolutionary Party Headquarters, add some drunken anger to high political spirit with some mob mentality and you got yourself a full blown out Riot. Not only did they set fire to the Revolutionary Party HQ but also raid and looted the National Museum out of protest.
I may joke, but unfortunately 5 people were found dead because of the hostile behavior.
Hmm, not if we could only get the youth of the US to be as excited about politics and Presidential Elections as they are about College Basketball we might have something.
More can be found at NYTimes Articles:
[5 Dead in Riots After Mongolia Vote][Mongolia Enforces Martial Law in Capital Amid Politial Unrest]
It was the Parliamentary election, not the Presidential election. The state of emergency was lifted last Saturday, and things are more or less back to normal. I don’t think it should affect Mongol Rally
I think you can rest easy. The state of emergency was only for four days, and calm has returned to the city. It might also be mentioned that politics merely seemed to be a spark for the drunk, unemployed youth of UB, and that the elections were deemed free and fair by all international observers.
Correction: Martial Law was not introduced at all, state of emergency or curfew yes.