The mission is led by Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens and consists of a core team of 10 experts based in Ulaanbaatar and 20 long-term observers to be deployed in teams of two across the country.

The mission will assess the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. Observers will follow the implementation of election-related legislation, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, the media environment and the resolution of election-related disputes. As part of the observation, the mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.

In the course of its observation, the mission will meet with representatives from state authorities, political parties and candidates, and with representatives from civil society, the media, and the international community. While the mission will visit a limited number of polling stations on election day, systematic observation of voting, counting or tabulation of results is not envisaged.

The day after the election, the mission will join with the observer delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference. A final report on the observation will be published approximately two months after the completion of the electoral process.

A staff team from the IMF,">IMF, led by Koshy Mathai, has visited Ulaanbaatar twice since March. In order to comply to IMF conditions, the Government of Mongolia has amended its State Budget. Mongolia has reached an initial agreement with the IMF for a three-year programme that includes a $440 million loan package as part of a $5.5 billion bailout to help the north Asian country with its looming debt repayments.