Mongolia administratively consists of 21 provinces ( aymag ), divided into 334 counties (soums) and lesser administrative units called baghs , as well as one autonomous city, Ulaanbaatar, which is divided into districts and horoos. Each level of local administration has its own legislative body, or hural . These hurals nominate the provincial governors, who are then appointed by the prime minister.
In October 2000 local elections, the MPRP repeated its parliamentary election victory of July, winning 552 of 695 seats in the provincial and Ulaanbaatar governments. The democratic opposition took 87 local government seats, and independent candidates and small parties took 31 seats.