ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — A parliamentary election will be held in Mongolia on Friday for the first time since the body was expanded to 126 seats, adding some uncertainty to a vote that has been monopolized by two political parties and plagued by corruption.

The election in a relatively new democracy — the country was a single-party communist state until 1990 — comes at a time when many Mongolians have soured on the government, which they see as benefiting business interests and the wealthy.

“We have democracy only in appearance,” said Gantamur Dash, who earns money taking photos of tourists at the central square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. “Only a few are living luxurious lives and the rest of the population is poor.”

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country of 3.4 million people in East Asia squeezed between China and Russia. The government has sought to maintain ties with its much larger neighbors while also building new ones with the United States and its democratic allies — a delicate task since the two sides are increasingly at odds.

The political system is serving the interests of a few instead of the general population, said Sumati Luvsandendev, the director of the Sant Maral polling organization, adding that the United States faces the same problem.

Still, he said, most people want to stick with democracy. “Communism doesn’t work for Mongolia,” he said. “It is a collective system and we are … individualists.”

The ruling Mongolian People’s Party is favored to win the vote, though that is not a foregone conclusion. At a minimum, the overwhelming majority it holds in the current parliament could be reduced.

The parliament approved a constitutional change last year that added 50 seats and created two ways of electing members: 78 are chosen from 13 multimember constituencies and 48 are allocated to political parties depending on the percentage of the vote they get in the election.

The new system may give more political parties a chance to win seats in parliament, though they will have to reach a minimum percentage to do so.

Baljinnyam Nemekhjargal, a bank manager, favored having a strong ruling party in the previous election in 2020, but he said he no longer thinks so.

“I think the reforms were right,” he said. “We don’t need a supermajority. The opposition should be strong too.”

Sukhbaatar Enkhjargal, the head of a tech group that does election monitoring, isn’t convinced the changes will help and worries that they will create new problems. They will give more power to the party leaders, as lawmakers chosen by the party vote will be loyal to their party, not to the voters from a particular constituency.

“At the beginning of the democratic period, we’ve been quite successful,” he said. “We’ve been, like, ‘Oasis of Democracy’ from central Asia, etcetera. But now we really going back.”

Discontent with the government has been fueled by corruption. Large protests broke out in 2022 demanding that officials be held accountable for the alleged theft of 385,000 tons of coal from stockpiles on the border with China, a major buyer of Mongolian coal.

“Mongolian democracy has proven to be resilient over the years but … continued support … in the form of democratic solidarity and increased economic engagement will remain vital to Mongolia’s ‘Oasis of Democracy,’” the International Republican Institute, an American group that promotes democracy worldwide, said this week in an online post on Friday’s election.

The two largest parties, the ruling Mongolian People’s Party and the Democratic Party, have included younger candidates in their mix in a bid to woo potential young voters and reshape their party images to counter public cynicism toward the government.

Younger voters make up a large part of the voting-age population, but historically they have not turned out in large numbers. If they do, that could benefit the HUN Party, which has emerged as a potential third force in Mongolian politics.

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Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.

A new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rated countries on their ability to immediately adopt artificial intelligence (AI) into their economies, once again urging policymakers to ensure the life-changing tech “can benefit all.” 

“Under most scenarios, AI will likely worsen overall inequality, a troubling trend that policymakers can work to prevent,” the IMF wrote in a blog post on its data. “To this end, the dashboard is a response to significant interest from our stakeholders in accessing the index.” 

The index measures a country’s AI adoption preparedness through four key measures: digital infrastructure, human capital and labor market policies, innovation and economic integration and regulation.

The index breaks countries into five brackets with a rating of 0 to 1, with a higher score representing more favorable AI preparedness, rating 174 countries. 

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According to those ratings, the U.S. and the Netherlands top the chart with a .77 value of preparedness. Other highly-rated countries are Finland and Estonia with .76, New Zealand, Germany and Sweden with .75 and Australia, Japan and Israel with .73. 

Taiwan, which is the beating heart of semiconductor production and the manufacturer of the most advanced microprocessors, surprisingly received a .67 rating. 

Rival nations in the West received worse ratings, with China at .64, Russia at .56, Iran at .38 and Venezuela at .27. 

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India, an industrial powerhouse and a country that has rapidly ascended the ranks of major economies to overtake the U.K. as the fifth-largest economy starting in 2022, has a rating of .49. 

At the bottom end — the countries least-prepared to adopt AI — were South Sudan with .11, Afghanistan with .13, the Central African Republic (CAR) with .18 and Somalia with .2. All other nations received ratings of .25 or higher. 

A doctor using the AI document management concept. (iStock)

For countries like Afghanistan, the IMF lacks data on the economy, which may have skewed some of the data. Countries such as North Korea, Yemen, Eritrea and Turkmenistan did not appear on the map due to having “no data” about them. 

The IMF warned that its data proved “challenging” to gather and synthesize, noting that “institutional requirements for economy-wide integration of AI are still uncertain.” 

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“As the dashboard shows, different countries are at different stages of readiness in leveraging the potential benefits of AI and managing the risks,” the IMF wrote. 

“In advanced economies, for example, some 30% of jobs could benefit from AI integration,” the IMF explained. “Workers who can harness the technology may see pay gains or greater productivity, while those who can’t, may fall behind.”

Nvidia is developing real-world robots equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Younger workers may find it easier to exploit opportunities, while older workers could struggle to adapt,” it added. 

Previous IMF analysis determined AI will transform roughly 40% of global employment, which is in line with historical effects of automation and information technology advancements. However, what sets AI apart as a challenge is the fact it will also impact high-skilled jobs. And in more advanced economies, up to 60% of jobs may be affected.

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With its new analysis, the IMF has suggested countries with more advanced economies should look to expand social safety nets, invest in training workers and prioritize AI innovation and integration. 

“Coordinating with one another globally, these countries also should strengthen regulation to protect people from potential risks and abuses and build trust in AI,” the IMF said. “The policy priority for emerging market and developing economies should be to lay a strong foundation by investing in digital infrastructure and digital training for workers.”

France is in midst of a snap election, but what do Berlin, Budapest, Madrid and Rome make of the unfolding saga? How is the prospect of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally leading France viewed in other parts of the continent? Radio Schuman digs into the issue with Euronews correspondents across the continent.

We also preview today’s key European Council meeting – those top jobs still need to be agreed – and delve into how congested it’s getting up in space.

Radio Schuman is hosted and produced by Maïa de la Baume, with journalist and production assistant Eleonora Vasques and audio editing by Zacharia Vigneron. The music is by Alexandre Jas.