Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia  - Mongolian opposition leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj announced his resignation Friday, three weeks after controversial elections returned the ruling party to power, and said his party would boycott the first session of parliament next week.

Elbegdorj's resignation as head of the Democratic Party (DP) came a day after a failed no-confidence vote against the government led by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. Some deputies in his own party had decline to vote for the no-confidence motion.

Earlier this week, the Mongolian election commission announced that the MPRP had won 39 seats, a narrow majority in the 76-seat one- chamber parliament. The DP gained 25 seats, while 10 other seats remained unclear as votes in three districts had to be recounted.

Meeting the press, Elbegdorj repeated allegations that the June 29 election results had been manipulated.

He also sharply criticised the government for its handling of the violent unrest which followed the elections, resulting in five deaths, charging the government had shown its incompetence.

Elbegdorj compared the arrests of demonstrators to the Stalinist repression of the 1930s and said that 18 years of democratic development in Mongolia had been for nothing.

Political observers said there was a danger that if the DP continued a boycott of parliament, it could deprive the chamber of a quorum, in turn blocking the formation of a new government. (dpa)