ULAN BATOR: After a campaign dominated by promises to end widespread poverty, Mongolians were voting for a new president yesterday, with polls showing the candidate of the former communist ruling party leading three rivals.

If none of the four candidates wins more than 50%, a run-off would be held on June 5 between the top two.

Voters began lining up even before polls opened at 7am, many wearing traditional Mongolian costumes just for the occasion. Voter turnout is typically very high in Mongolia – in the last presidential vote it was 83% – a legacy of communist rule before 1990 when voting was compulsory.

But unlike under communism, “now we can choose,” said Janchiv Tserev, 82, who wore his World War II medals pinned to his knee-length maroon tunic.

“Before we could vote for only one person. Now there are four candidates,” he said.

For elderly nomads too frail to make it to their voting site, polls workers took ballot boxes to them – driving out in sport-utility vehicles to the round white tents that dot Mongolia's grasslands.

“It's good to be old, because people come out and take our vote,” said Batsukh Tseveenchimed, 62, as she offered bread and tea to the six polls workers – including opposition party monitors – who descended on her tent.