| History of Mongolia |
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 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2023) |
The modern democratic era of Mongolia started after the Mongolian Revolution of 1990.
| History of Mongolia |
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| |
| | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2023) |
The modern democratic era of Mongolia started after the Mongolian Revolution of 1990.
With the changes taking place internationally in the communist world, in particular in the Soviet Union, which had sheltered and led Mongolia; young people in Mongolia wanted to make a change in the society and the way the government was running its business. In addition, Mongolia suffered economic hardships from as early as the 1980s. The young people began to meet secretly and discuss it. For example, during his studies in the USSR, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj learned about Glasnost, the concepts such as freedom of speech and economic liberties. After returning to Mongolia, he met other like-minded people and tried to present those ideas to a wider audience, [1] despite attempts of repression from the Politburo-authority of the government, [2] and threats by his employer to lose his job.
In October 1989, New Generation, an underground resistance movement was formed. [3]
On 28 November 1989, at the end of a speech at the Young Artists' Second National Congress, Elbegdorj said that Mongolia needed democracy and appealed for youth to collaborate to create democracy in Mongolia. He told the audience "We consider that Perestroika is a timely and brave step. Youth's contribution to this revolutionary matter is not by supportive talks but by certain work. Our contribution is our objectives to be fulfilled. Our objectives are: ... following democracy and transparency and contributing to glasnost, ... and supporting fair progressive power ... These are the objectives of an initiatives' group-an organization that shall work. After the congress I hope we will gather and discuss with you about it in this (newly forming group). The organization shall be based on public, voluntary and democratic principles." [4]
The chairman of the congress stopped Elbegdorj's speech and warned him not to say such things. It was 1989 and Mongolia had been a communist country for 68 years. [5] At that time, it was alleged that every other person was an unofficial communist party spy who would report people who expressed opinions other than socialism and communism. [6] During the break of the congress, two young individuals met Elbegdorj and the three agreed to found a democratic movement and to secretly spread the news to other young people. [7] Later the three met and united with ten other individuals and they are known as the Thirteen Leaders of Mongolia's Democratic Revolution. [8] [9] On his return from the congress, his boss at the newspaper Ulaan Od warned Elbegdorj that he would be fired if he participated further in any activities out of work or engaged in any conduct inconsistent with communist and socialist ideology. [4] Despite the warning, Elbegdorj and his friends met secretly with other young people in the circle auditorium of the National University of Mongolia and discussed democracy, free market economic policy, and other prohibited subjects of the time, and began to draft a plan to organize a democratic movement. [10] They met many times and brought new friends and new supporters to join them secretly. One night they placed ads of their open demonstration in streets. [4]
On 9 December, people from New Generation met students, journalists and others to set up an open organization calling for drastic reform. The group called itself Mongolian Democratic Union. [3]
On the morning of 10 December 1989, the first open pro-democracy demonstration met in front of the Youth Cultural Center in Ulaanbaatar. [11] There, Elbegdorj announced the creation of the Mongolian Democratic Union (MDU). [12] At the demonstration, the MDU founders publicly petitioned the government for a real implementation of Perestroika, allowing a multi-party system, and the total implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all party and government affairs. [3]
In subsequent months the activists led by 13 democracy leaders including Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Erdeniin Bat-Üül, Bat-Erdeniin Batbayar and others continued to organize demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, as well as teachers' and workers' strikes. [13] The activists had growing support from Mongolians, both in the capital and the countryside and the union's activities led to other calls for democracy all over the country. [14] [15] [16]
On 2 January 1990, Mongolian Democratic Union began distributing leaflets calling for a democratic revolution. [3] When the government did not comply with this and later, more aggressive demands, demonstrations occurred. On January 14, 1990, some 1000 protesters met on square in front of Lenin Museum which has been renamed as Freedom Square since then in Ulaanbaatar. A demonstration on Sükhbaatar Square on 21 January (in weather of -30 C) followed. Protestors carried banners alluding to Chinggis Khaan (also referred to Genghis Khan), rehabilitating a figure which Soviet schooling neglected to praise. [17] They celebrated Daramyn Tömör-Ochir, a politician who was purged from the MPRP in 1962 as part of the MPRP's efforts to suppress the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's birth. And the rebels carried a modified Flag of Mongolia which lacked a star symbolizing socialism; this flag would become the new flag after the revolution. [18]
After numerous demonstrations of many thousands of people in the capital city as well as provincial centers, on 4 March 1990, the MDU and three other reform organizations held a joint outdoor mass meeting, inviting the government to attend. The government sent no representative to what became a demonstration of over 100,000 people demanding democratic change. [3] Ten members of the organizations began a hunger strike on 7 March, the next day, [3] Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party(MPRP) (present Mongolian People's Party)'s Politburo – the authority of the government eventually gave way to the pressure and entered negotiations with the leaders of the democratic movement Mongolian Democratic Union. [19] Jambyn Batmönkh, chairman of Politburo of MPRP's Central Committee decided to dissolve the Politburo and to resign on 9 March 1990. [20] [21] This paved the way for the first multi-party elections in Mongolia. [13]
Behind the scenes, however, the MPRP had seriously considered cracking down on the protesters, writing a decree that was left to be signed by the party leader Jambyn Batmönkh. Batmönkh opposed it, maintaining a strict policy of never using force (Mongolian : Хэрхэвч Хүч хэрэглэж болохгүй). People those were present there later recalled that Batmönkh said "I will never sign this. We few Mongols have not yet come to the point that we will make each other's noses bleed," smacked the table, and left the room." [22]
Elbegdorj announced the news of the Politburo resignation to the hunger strikers and to people who'd gathered on Sükhbaatar Square at 10PM on that day after the negotiations between leaders of MPRP and Mongolian Democratic Union. [4] Then the hunger strike stopped.
In April, the conflict worsened, with the government restricting the freedom of assembly and the democracy leaders submitting an ultimatum demanding equal participation of all political groups. The Communist party refused to accede to the demands. [3] However, in May, under pressure and after negotiations with members of the opposition movement, the People's Great Hural approved the Law on Political Parties.
Following the collapse of the Communist regime, Mongolia's first free, multi-party elections for a bicameral parliament were held on July 29, 1990. [3] [23] Parties ran for 430 seats in the Great Hural, with opposition parties not able to nominate enough candidates. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party MPRP won 357 seats, an 83% majority. It also received a majority in the Small Hural (which was later abolished), winning 31 out of 53. The State Great Hural (upper house) first met on 3 September and elected a president (MPRP), vice president (Social Democrat), prime minister (MPRP), and 50 members to the Baga Hural (lower house). The vice president was also chairman of the Baga Hural. In November 1991, the People's Great Hural (Parliament) began discussion on a new constitution, which entered into force on 12 February 1992. In addition to establishing Mongolia as an independent, sovereign republic and guaranteeing a number of rights and freedoms, the new constitution restructured the legislative branch of government, creating a unicameral legislature, the State Great Hural (SGH).
Nonetheless, the new MPRP government under Dashiin Byambasüren shared power with the democrats, and implemented constitutional and economic reforms, with a new constitution being adopted in 1992. In early and mid-1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had until 1990 provided significant economic aid to Mongolia's state budget, the country experienced harsh economic problems as early as the 1980s. Foreign trade broke down, economic and technical aid from the former socialist countries ended, and domestic economy was struggling with privatization. Inflation rose, stores' shelves were depleted, ration cards for food were issued for a period of time. A thriving black market arose in Ulaanbaatar by 1988 to accommodate the needs of the populace. [3]
The constitution was amended in 1992. In the same year, the MPRP won another round of parliamentary elections. The new constitution also provided that the president would be elected by popular vote rather than by the legislature as before. Incumbent Punsalmaagin Ochirbat became Mongolia's first universally elected president winning the 1993 Mongolian presidential election with two thirds of the vote. Originally an MPRP member, Ochirbat ran as the candidate of the democratic opposition, after the MPRP had nominated an orthodox communist as their candidate. The MPRP was defeated for the first time in its history.
In 1996 Mongolian parliamentary elections, the Democratic Union won the legislative elections for the first time co-led by Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj as the chairman of Democratic Party. The MPRP lost the majority for the first time. [24] MPRP candidate Natsagiin Bagabandi became elected as president in 1997, and re-elected in 2001.
In parliamentary elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008, the MPRP won the legislative elections and was the ruling party between these periods. 2004 election results forced the MPRP to join a coalition government with the Motherland Democratic Coalition, a coalition of the Democratic Party (Mongolia), the Civic Will Party, and the Motherland Party. The MPRP left the coalition in January 2006, however, proceeded to create a government on its own. Another government reshuffle took place at the end of 2007, when the MPRP decided to replace its prime minister Miyeegombyn Enkhbold with Sanjaagiin Bayar. MPRP formed a coalition government with the Democratic Party in 2008 also, although the MPRP won the majority being blamed for vote rigging and followed riots.
In 2009 Mongolian Presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj defeated MPRP candidate incumbent President Nambaryn Enkhbayar. [25] [26] In January 2012, Democratic Party made a decision to leave the coalition government before upcoming parliamentary elections in June. Following Democratic Party's victory in 2009 Presidential election, in 2012 Parliamentary elections Democratic Party won. [27] In 2012 local elections of the capital city, provinces, districts Mongolian People's Party (former MPRP) was defeated for the first time in the country's history. [28] In 2013 Mongolian Presidential election, Democratic Party candidate incumbent President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj won. [29] Thus the Democratic Party stemming from Mongolian Democratic Union-the pro-democracy activists has been on the power of Mongolia's presidency, parliament and government since 2012. [27] [29]
MPP won a landslide victory both 2016 and 2020 election. However, before the 2020 election, the ruling party had redrawn the electoral map in a way beneficial to MPP: [30] After Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh of MPP, in office since 2016, had resigned after protests over the treatment of a coronavirus patient, Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdeneo of MPP became new prime minister on 27 January 2021. He represented a younger generation of leaders that had studied abroad., [31] Khaltmaa Battulga, the candidate of opposition Democratic party, was President of Mongolia since 2017 until 2021, after winning the presidential election. [32] In June 2021, former Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, candidate of the ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP), became the country's sixth democratically elected president with a landslide election victory. [33]
The politics of Mongolia takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential multi-party representative democracy. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister, who is the head of government, and the Cabinet. The president is the head of state, but holds limited authority over the executive branch of the government, unlike full presidential republics like the United States. Legislative power is vested in parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Mongolian People's Republic was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. Until 1990, it was a one-party state ruled by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, and maintained close political and economic ties with the Soviet Union, as part of the Eastern Bloc. Socialist collectivization, industrialization, and urbanization transformed Mongolia's agrarian, nomadic economy of the 1920s into a developing, agricultural-industrial economy by the late 1980s.
Nambaryn Enkhbayar is a Mongolian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2000 to 2004, as Speaker of the Parliament from 2004 to 2005, and as President of Mongolia from 2005 to 2009. He is the first person to have held all of the top three positions in the Mongolian government. He was the chairman of the Mongolian People’s Party from 1997 to 2005 and head of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party from 2010 to 2021. His eldest son, Batshugar Enkhbayar is a member of the State Great Khural from Mongolian People's Party.
The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) is a social democratic political party in Mongolia. It was founded as a communist party in 1920 by Mongolian revolutionaries and is the oldest political party in Mongolia. The party played an important role in the Mongolian Revolution of 1921, which was inspired by the Bolsheviks' October Revolution. Following independence, it governed Mongolia as a one-party socialist state. The party changed its name to the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and joined the Communist International in 1924 and served as a sole-ruling party of the Mongolian People's Republic.
Elbegdorj Tsakhia is a Mongolian politician and journalist who served as President of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017. He previously served as Prime Minister in 1998 and again from 2004 to 2006.
Jambyn Batmönkh was a Mongolian communist political leader and economics professor. He was the leader of Mongolia from 1984 until its transition into democracy in 1990.
Mongolia elects its head of state—the President of Mongolia—at the national level. The president is elected for a six-year term by the people, using the Two-round system. The State Great Khural has 76 members, originally elected for a four-year term from single-seat constituencies. Due to the voting system, Mongolia experienced extreme shifts in the composition of the parliament after the 1996, 2000, and 2004 elections, so it has changed to a more proportional system in which some seats are filled on the basis of votes for local candidates, and some on the basis of nationwide party preference totals. Beginning in 2008, local candidates were elected from 26 electoral districts. Beginning with the 2012 elections, a parallel system was enacted, combining a district part and a nationwide proportional part. 48 seats are chosen at the local level in 26 districts with 1-3 seats using Plurality-at-large voting. 28 seats are chosen from nationwide closed party lists using the Largest remainder method. In the district seats, a candidate is required to get at least 28% of the vote cast in a district to be elected. If there are seats that are not filled due to this threshold, a runoff election is held in the respective district with twice the number of representatives as there are seats to be filled, between the top vote-getters of the first round.
Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan was the prime minister of Mongolia from July 7, 1996 to April 23, 1998, the first in 80 years not belonging to the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
The Democratic Party is a Centre-right political party in Mongolia.
Miyegombyn Enkhbold is a Mongolian politician who was Prime Minister of Mongolia from January 2006 to November 2007 and Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2012. He has been Chairman of the State Great Khural, the Mongolian parliament,from 2016 to 2019.
Puntsagiin Jasrai was a Mongolian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Mongolia from 21 July 1992 until 19 July 1996.
Sanjaagiin Bayar is a Mongolian politician who was General Secretary of the Mongolian People's Party from 22 November 2007 to 8 April 2010, and Prime Minister of Mongolia from 22 November 2007 to 29 October 2009. He announced on 26 October 2009, that he was going to resign his position as Prime Minister due to health reasons. He was replaced by Sükhbaataryn Batbold on 29 October 2009.
Parliamentary elections were held in Mongolia on 29 June 2008. A total of 356 candidates ran for the 76 seats in the State Great Khural. According to official results published on 14 July, at least 39 seats were won by the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), and at least 25 seats by the main opposition party, the Democrats (DP). Ten seats remained subject to possible recounts.
Parliamentary elections were held in Mongolia in 1990. The State Great Khural was elected on 22 June 1990, with a second round on 29 June, at which time the Little Khural, the new second chamber, was also elected.
The Mongolian Revolution of 1990, known in Mongolia as the 1990 Democratic Revolution, was a peaceful democratic revolution which led to the country's transition to a multi-party system. It was inspired by the economic reforms of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and was one of the many revolutions of 1989. It was led mostly by young demonstrators who rallied at Sükhbaatar Square, in the capital city Ulaanbaatar. The main organisers of the demonstrations included Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Erdeniin Bat-Üül, Davaadorjiin Ganbold, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Bat-Erdeniin Batbayar.
Dumaagiin Sodnom is a Mongolian political figure who served as Prime Minister of Mongolia from 1984 to 1990.
Presidential elections were held in Mongolia on 24 May 2009. They were contested between incumbent Nambaryn Enkhbayar, supported by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, and Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who had support of the Democratic Party and the opposition parties. Elbegdorj declared himself the victor before the count was official but based on his party's counts. Enkhbayar admitted a narrow defeat shortly after and said that he would respect the results, marking the second time an incumbent president had lost their bid for re-election - following Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat in the 1997 election.
Parliamentary elections were held in Mongolia on 28 June 2012 to elect 76 members of the State Great Khural. Also held during the parliamentary elections was the Ulaanbaatar city council election, the first time both have been held at the same time. For the first time, the election used vote counting machines by new parliamentary election laws to make the election fair.
Presidential elections were held in Mongolia on 26 June 2013. The Democratic Party nominee, incumbent President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj was re-elected, defeating both Mongolian People's Party nominee of parliament member Badmaanyambuugiin Bat-Erdene and Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party nominee Natsagiin Udval, who was Minister of Health at the time of the election. Elbegdorj was inaugurated on 10 July 2013 for his second term in office.
Presidential elections were held in Mongolia on 26 June 2017. Incumbent President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, first elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, was constitutionally barred from running for a third term. For the first time, no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, forcing a run-off between Khaltmaagiin Battulga and Miyeegombyn Enkhbold on 7 July, brought forward from 9 July. The third-placed candidate Sainkhuugiin Ganbaatar refused to recognise the results after he missed out on the second round due to finishing 1,849 behind Enkhbold, claiming that an additional 35,000 votes had been added to the total and there had been fraud. His Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party demanded a recount of votes in Bayan-Ölgii.
Mongolia-watchers in Beijing said that... the democracy movement is rooted more in nationalism than in dissent.... 'Watching it unfold, you get the feeling this is more a pro-nationalist and pro-Mongolian movement than it is anti-party or anti-government,' said a diplomat who left Ulan Bator on Monday.
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