Post-communist generation is hoping for a new era of democracy in Mongolia

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, is unhappy with below-cost electricity rates that she says show her country has yet to fully shake off its socialist past.

Most of Mongolia’s power plants date from the Soviet era and outages are common in some areas. Heavy smog envelops the capital Ulaanbaata r in the winter because many people still burn coal to heat their homes.

“It’s stuck in how it was like 40, 50 years ago,” said Tsenguun, part of a rising generation of leaders who are puzzling out their country’s future after three decades of democracy. “And that’s the reason why we need to change it.”

Democracy in Mongolia is in a transition phase, said Tsenguun, who at 27 is the youngest member of a new parliament sworn in this week. “We are trying to figure out what democracy actually means,” she said in a recent interview.

'Mongolia became a democracy in the early 1990s after six decades of one-party communist rule. Many Mongolians welcomed the end of repression and resulting freedoms but have since soured on the parliament and established political parties. Lawmakers are widely seen as enriching themselves and their big business supporters from the nation's mineral wealth rather than using it to develop a country where poverty is widespread.

Voters delivered an election setback to the ruling Mongolian People's Party last week, leaving it still in charge but with a slim majority of 68 out of the 126 seats in parliament.

Tsenguun was one of 42 winning candidates from the main opposition Democratic Party, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

She articulates a vision for Mongolia that dovetails with small government Republicans in the United States. In her view, too many people think the government will take care of them, and the large budget just feeds corruption. Government should be as invisible as possible, she said, and give people the freedom and responsibility to build their own lives.

“I don’t think that (the) free market has developed yet because the people are not used to this mentality,” she said. “People are afraid of competition.”

The detention of a couple of journalists in the past several months has fueled worries that the government may be edging backward, eroding the freedoms that democracy brought.

Tsenguun said her age group, who only know the post-communist era, needs to push back. "I think we also need to fight for it, because our generation didn’t have to fight for freedom,” she said.

The ruling party, which also ran the country during the communist period, is well-entrenched and enjoys the support of many older voters.

Retired community leaders, one wearing service medals from the government, showed up before polls opened at 7 a.m. in an Ulaanbaatar neighborhood. Elders are pioneers, one said, coming first to encourage others to vote.

Younger voters historically have not voted in large numbers, but anecdotal reports suggest their turnout may have risen in Ulaanbaatar in last week's election. Nearly half the country's population of 3.4 million people live in the capital.

“It was really encouraging to see so many young people in such a long line to vote as early as possible,” said Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, a former Democratic Party lawmaker and Cabinet minister who founded her own party two years ago.

“When I met with them during the election campaign, I saw it in person,” said Oyungerel, whose Civic Unity Party didn’t win any seats. “I saw their desire to fight and desire to change, really strongly.”

The proportion of female representatives rose from 17% to 25% in the new parliament, but most of those came in 48 seats that are allocated to parties based on their share of the vote. Female candidates did not do well in the head-to-head competition to represent 13 multi-member districts.

As a young woman, Tsenguun sees requirements that political parties nominate female candidates as a two-edged sword. She has to fight against the assumption that she got her position only because of a quota.

“I have to prove I’m not too young or inexperienced, and then afterwards comes, oh, she’s a woman,” she said. 'We are equal people and ... we can equally be strong candidates. And that’s what I want to say to my fellow female candidates."

The People's Party has tried to reposition itself in response to the public discontent. It appointed Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, a relatively young prime minister with a master's degree from Harvard University, in 2021.

Oyun-Erdene, now 44, waited on a long line that stretched outside a polling station before casting his ballot. Afterward, he blamed malicious people for using political parties for their own interest. “Today a completely new 30 years in the history of Mongolia begins,” he promised a crush of media outside.

It's unclear, however, how much the government will change and whether democracy in Mongolia is really on the cusp of a new era.

Tsenguun may want to make a difference but she is a first-term lawmaker in the opposition.

Her father sent her to live with her mother in Austria when she was 9 years old to experience living abroad. Like many Mongolians, her mother had left in search of better economic opportunities.

Tsenguun admired Austria, but decided she was happier at home and return after three years. The experience showed her what Mongolia could accomplish, she said.

“For me, it was not an option to go abroad and live somewhere else,” she said. “So therefore I wanted to change my motherland. That’s the reason why I took this path.”

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, waits to receive her Parliament membership card at a ceremony held at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Monday, July 1, 2024. Tsenguun was one of 42 winning candidates from the Democratic Party, the main opposition group, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - Young Mongolians chat under umbrellas as it rains on Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Younger voters historically have not voted in large numbers, but anecdotal reports suggest their turnout may have risen in Ulaanbaatar in last week's Parliament election. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, holds up her Parliament membership card during a ceremony held at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Monday, July 1, 2024. Tsenguun was one of 42 winning candidates from the Democratic Party, the main opposition group, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, second from right, dressed in Mongolian traditional garment call deel, reacts as a woman takes a selfie with her child as he waited in line outside a polling station to vote in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, June 28, 2024. The ruling People's Party has tried to reposition itself in response to the public discontent. It appointed the relatively young prime minister, Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, now 44, with a master's degree from Harvard University in 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, shakes hands with colleagues before receiving her Parliament membership card at a ceremony held at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Monday, July 1, 2024. Tsenguun was one of 42 winning candidates from the Democratic Party, the main opposition group, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - A Mongolian woman consults a fortuneteller divining fortunes with stones on a street across from Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Thursday, June 27, 2024. The proportion of female representatives rose from 17% to 25% in the new elected parliament, but most of those came in 48 seats that are allocated to parties based on their share of the vote. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, then a young candidate vying for a position in Mongolia's parliament, speaks at a party headquarters in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. Tsenguun went on to become one of 42 winning candidates from the Democratic Party, the main opposition group, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Hurricane Beryl swept ashore in Texas as a Category 1 storm in the dark of the early morning hours Monday, lashing Houston with heavy rains and powerful winds, and knocking out power to more than 1 million homes and businesses as fast rising waters caused street flooding and prompted rescues.

Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before turning toward Texas, and hit land around 4 a.m. High waters quickly began to close streets in storm-weary Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, which was again under flood warnings after heavy storms in recent months washed out neighborhoods.

CenterPoint Energy in Houston reported more than 1 million homes and businesses were without power hours after the storm made landfall. Flood warnings were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge pushed water ashore, and further inland as heavy rain continued to fall.

Police in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg urged residents to stay off the roads, reporting that one of its high-water rescue vehicles had been hit by a falling tree while returning from a rescue. Video footage showed heavy street flooding in the barrier island city of Galveston, and Houston was under a flash flood warning for most of the morning as heavy rain continued to soak the city.

The National Weather Service expected Beryl to weaken to a tropical storm Monday and a tropical depression Tuesday, forecasting a turn to the northeast and increase in speed Monday night and Tuesday. The storm’s center is expected to move over eastern Texas on Monday and then through the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Beryl’s moving inland but this is not the end of the story yet,” said Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

In the Texas coastal city of Freeport, Patti Richardson said she was riding out the the storm in her 123-year-old house.

“We are sitting in the middle of it. It sounds like we are in a train station, it’s that loud and has been about four hours. We’re just hoping everything holds together,” Richardson said. “You can feel the house shaking ... It’s freaky.”

Beryl had weakened to a tropical storm after damaging Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, but became a hurricane again late Sunday. The storm’s center hit land around 4 a.m. about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Houston with top sustained winds of 80 mph (128.7 kph).

More than 1,000 flights have been canceled at Houston’s two airports, according to tracking data from FlightAware.

The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.

Three times during its one week of life, Beryl has gained 35 mph (56 kph) in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification.

Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm indicates the hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.

Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind. The hurricane warning extended from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston.

Potential storm surges between 4 and 7 feet (1.22 and 2.13 meters) above ground level were forecast around Matagorda. The warnings extended to the same coastal areas where Hurricane Harvey came ashore in 2017 as a Category 4 hurricane, far more powerful than Beryl.

In Louisiana, heavy bands of rain are expected all day Monday and “the risk is going to be for that heavy rainfall and potential for flash flooding,” National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones said in a Monday morning Facebook Live briefing.

Meteorologists in Louisiana are watching for lingering rainbands, which could drop copious amounts of rain wherever they materialize, as well as “quick, spin-up tornadoes,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

“It’s just a matter of exactly where that’s going to be,” Jones said. “That’s very difficult to predict more than maybe an hour or so in advance.”

Tornadoes were also possible in eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the hurricane center said.

People on the Texas coast boarded up windows and left beach towns under an evacuation order.

The hurricane center warned residents to be prepared for possible flash flooding in parts of middle, upper and eastern Texas as well as Arkansas as the storm gradually turns to the north and then northeast later Monday.

People on the Texas coast boarded up windows and left beach towns under an evacuation order. Many residents and business owners took the typical storm precautions but also expressed uncertainty about the storm’s intensity.

In Port Lavaca, Jimmy May fastened plywood over the windows of his electrical supply company and said he wasn’t concerned about the possible storm surge. He recalled his business had escaped flooding in a previous hurricane that brought a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge.

“In town, you know, if you’re in the low-lying areas, obviously, you need to get out of there,” he said.

The White House said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent emergency responders, search-and-rescue teams, bottled water and other resources along the coast.

Several coastal counties called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding. Local officials also banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the Fourth of July holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.

Beryl battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.

Valerie Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

An oil tanker heads out to open water as surfers take advantage of waves ahead of Hurricane Beryl's arrival in Port Aransas, Texas, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Sherry Cothron and Jimmy May board windows as they prepare for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A hotel guest navigates the halls after power was lost due to Hurricane Beryl, Monday, July 8, 2024, in Bay City, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Ed Campbell works to secure his boat as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Beryl is hurtling across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Workers with the Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees remove lifeguard towers from the beach near 57th Street in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. The storm is expected to make landfall near Matagorda Bay early Monday morning. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

A message for Beryl is left on a boarded up business, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Rock Port, Texas, as the storm moves closer to the Texas coast. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

People watch waves crash into the 37th Street rock groin in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

Doan Vu, right, and Luan Nguyen, left, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Luan Nguyen boards up windows as he helps prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall. Landfall was expected early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Doan Vu, left, and Luan Nguyen, right, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Clyde George, left, and his son Chris George board up their home ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Beryl on Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A man walks his dog near a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Richard Alcazar stacks sandbags in front of the door at Atmosphere The Salon & Beyond in Galveston, Texas, Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl heads toward the Texas coast. Alcazar, a barber at the salon, prepared the doors for any possible flooding from the storm. ( Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

Blake Braun loads his dog Dolly into his family's vehicle as outer bands from Tropical Storm Beryl begin to hit the coast Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)