ULAN BATOR, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Khaltmaa Battulga of Mongolia's opposition Democratic Party (DP) is poised to win a presidential run-off held on Friday with more electoral votes than his rival, according to preliminary results.
Battulga, a businessman and former judoka, earned 610,451 votes, or 50.6 percent of the ballots counted, against his opponent Miyegombyn Enkhbold of 41.1 percent.
Choizon Sodnomtseren, head of the country's election commission, made the announcement at a press conference after the closure of all 1,983 polling stations in Mongolia at 12:10 a.m. local time on Saturday (1610 GMT on Friday).
Over 1.2 million people cast their ballots in the seventh presidential election of the country, with a turnout of 60.48 percent. Roughly 99,426 people abstained, choosing neither Battulga nor Enkhbold of the ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP), accounting for 8.3 percent of the votes counted.
So far, the counting of votes by the Mongolians in European countries is still underway and the final result is yet to be officially announced.
If Battulga keeps the advantage with over 50 percent of the total votes, according to the Law on the Election of the President of Mongolia,he will win the election and become the new president of the Central Asian country.
The voting process was monitored by 123 observers from 37 countries.
