The inauguration on June 18, 2009 of Tsakhia Elbegdorj as Mongolia's next president is an important, if not essential, factor in maintaining the country's two-party democracy. By all accounts, the Democratic Party (DP) leader ran a masterful campaign to defeat incumbent Nambaryn Enkhbayar of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). The peaceful presidential election outcome is all the more significant in light of the July 2008 violence following the highly charged parliamentary elections when five persons were killed and over 200 were injured as a result of opposition protests against election irregularities. After this violence--the only such incident in Mongolia's independence history--shocked the nation, Enkhbayar and his party quickly conceded victory to the Democratic challenger in a move to avoid popular disruptions.

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