2012 Mongolian legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Mongolia on 28 June 2012 to elect 76 members of the State Great Khural.[1] 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 legislative election laws to make the election fair.

2012 Mongolian legislative election

28 June 2012
All 76 seats to the Ikh Khural 39 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Norovyn Altankhuyag Sükhbaataryn Batbold Party DP MPP Leader since 30 August 2008 6 November 2010 Leader's seat Party list (№1) Party list (№1) Last election 40.44%, 28 seats 52.68%, 45 seats Seats won 31 25 Seat change 3 20 Popular vote 399,194 353,839 Percentage 33.32% 29.53%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nambaryn Enkhbayar Sanjaasürengiin Oyuun Party Justice Coalition Civil Will-Green Leader since 29 June 2011 12 March 2012 Leader's seat Not contesting Party list (№1) Last election – 3.41%, 2 seats Seats won 11 2 Seat change New Popular vote 252,077 62,310 Percentage 21.04% 5.20%
Prime Minister before election Sükhbaataryn Batbold MPP Elected Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag DP

Electoral system

A new legislative election law introduced the status of domestic election observers who are nominated by civil society organisations. Parties had to announce 48 candidates for constituency seats and 28 candidates for proportional allocation.[2] Among the changes was also a quota of 20% of seats reserved for women.[3]

Parties

On 24 May the Democratic Party (DP) and Mongolian People's Party (MPP) announced their candidates for the election. A new party that participated was Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party which was established in 2010 by Nambaryn Enkhbayar.

Prior to January, the Democratic Party was a part of the grand coalition in government with the Mongolian People's Party, but later withdrew to focus on the campaign.[4]

Campaign

A large share of the posters were for individual candidates, though showing party logos, which were perceived as being aimed at voters in specific constituencies. By contrast, advertising on television was much broader and much more focused on the parties.

Corruption is a big problem, because of corruption, because of bad governance I think most of the emerging societies are failing and failed. We [don't] want to repeat that.

— President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, [5]

A spate of mining concessions to foreign companies has led to an influx of money into the country. This was also followed by accusations of corruption and a lack of accountability over the political leadership for squandering the country's natural resources and at least tacitly tolerating the mistreatment of Mongolian workers at mines operated by foreign companies. All political parties campaigned against corruption before the election. Mining and Energy Minister Dashdorjiin Zorigt said that "the only way out of this situation is to have more growth that is more just." According to the opinion polling firm, Sumati Luvsandendev, 90% of Mongolians believe that politicians benefit from some form of "special arrangements" over mining concessions to foreign companies. Rapper Tugsjargal Munkherdene, also known as "Gee," partook in campaigning against corruption.[6] including a controversial video clip against the alleged exploitation by ethnic Chinese.[7] As a result of public pressure, there was a speculation of tightening restrictions for investment in the mining sector after the election.[8]

The MPRP campaigned on a platform of "resource nationalism." Reuters suggested its participation in government could impact the mining sector, including the Tavan Tolgoi coal project, which the MPRP wants controlled by Mongolians.[4] Other issues included variations by the parties on how to use the windfall from mining concessions most efficiently, including pensions, infrastructure and other subsidies for local industries. The Democratic Party expressed it was best placed to help the poor and unemployed, while calling the Mongolian People's Party held to the elite[9] and foreign mining interests.[10]

Opinion polls

The Sant Maral Foundation and analysts had suggested that the Democratic Party would get a small plurality over the Mongolian People's Party, though neither party would get a majority.[9]

Conduct

The polling stations were open from 7:00 to 20:00.[11] Voting took place using electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the first time. The voting machines were set up by the Canadian company Dominion Voting Systems[9][11] to report results immediately to the General Election Committee rather than any kind of tabulation by the local election officials. Of the 1,833,000 eligible voters, 65% turned out to vote.[4] There were 544 candidates, of which 174 were women.[3]

Upon voting, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said "Today, we Mongolians face an important time to make a historic choice to address Mongolia's development and democracy."[9]

Results

Four seats were unfilled following the elections; in two constituencies the winning candidate received less than 28% of the vote, while the victory of two MPP candidates were annulled due to breaches of electoral law.[12]

Party	Votes	%	Seats
			District	PR	Total	+/–
Democratic Party	399,194	33.32	21	10	31	+3
Mongolian People's Party	353,839	29.53	16	9	25	–20
Justice Coalition (MPRP–MNDP)	252,077	21.04	4	7	11	New
Civil Will–Green Party	62,310	5.20	0	2	2	0
Other parties	67,994	5.68	0	0	0	–
Independents	62,672	5.23	3	0	3	+2
Vacant	–	–	4	–	4	–
Total	1,198,086	100	48	28	76	0
Registered voters/turnout	1,833,478	65.34	–	–	–	–
Source: IFES, Maškarinec

Reactions

Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj pointed out he was led to believe that all parties had so far accepted the result thus a coalition is likely to be formed in August. He then added that "the Mongolian People's Party seems to be losing to the Democratic Party" and that he "hope[s] that Mongolia is going to make great progress towards democracy, justice and prosperity."[13]

On 30 June the Mongolian People's Party and eight smaller parties called for a new election with manual hand counting throughout every constituency in the country. MPP Secretary Yangug Sodbaatar said that the EVMs "violated the constitution. We are [thus] demanding the traditional system of counting votes by hand in every election constituency across the whole country to end this confusion that the population has about the voting machines and automated systems." However, the Democratic Party did not sign a petition to call for a new election, backing the automated system.[14]

As a result of the election, the Democratic Party became the majority at the parliament. The Democratic Party formed a coalition government with Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and Civil Will-Green Party in August 2012. The Mongolian People's Party became the opposition at the parliament.

References

1. "The Parliamentary election to be held on June 28". news.mn. 26 April 2012. Archived from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
2. "DP and MPP to announce their candidates for election". news.mn. 24 May 2012. Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
3. EurasiaNet (29 June 2012). "Mongolia: New Electoral Law Aims To Help Women Enter Parliament".
4. "Mongolia Elections". Reuters.
5. "How corrupt is Mongolia? - China - Al Jazeera". www.aljazeera.com.
6. "Corruption and greed in 'Minegolia' - France - Al Jazeera". www.aljazeera.com.
7. "YouTube". www.youtube.com.
8. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com.
9. "WSJ.com". Archived from the original on 2013-02-10.
10. "Man Vs. Machine Mongolia Poll Results Snag on Ruling Party Call for Recount of Macine". Archived from the original on 2012-06-29.
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2012-06-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. Pavel Maškarinec (2019) "Ticket splitting, strategic voting and personal vote in the 2012 Mongolian", Communist and Post-Communist Studies
13. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com.
14. "Mongolia parties call for new elections | News | al Jazeera".