Mongolians began voting in parliamentary elections on Friday, with the ruling party widely expected to win despite deepening public anger over corruption and the state of the economy.

Voters across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million — sandwiched between authoritarian China and Russia — are exercising their democratic rights to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time, AFP reporters saw in the capital Ulaanbaatar and at a remote polling station. They close at 10 p.m.