By E.DARI

Mongolia’s General Election Committee (GEC) has handed over certificates to parties and coalitions running in the election of 2012 as proof of their official participation.
This ceremony took place on May 14th and was opened by N.Luvsanjav, the head of the GEC. He stated that the parties and coalitions must all adhere to the law in while running in the parliamentary election. The GEC intends to monitor their activities in order that they abide by the law.
The GEC has issued a list of the parties and coalitions accorded with their registration at the Supreme Court as the Mongolian People’s Party, Democratic Party, Mongolian Green Party, Civil Will-Green Party, Conservative United Party, United Party of Patriots,

By E.DARI

The government of Mongolia organized a “Grass roots democracy-with its nation” campaign in order to share its four year performance with the public. During the campaign the government, embassies and related agencies reported their performance to the public and heard people’s views and opinions while answering questions from citizens. The campaign was held at the Central Square and attended by the all members of parliament. Prime Minister S.Batbold opened the campaign and gave speech.
During the speech, Premier S.Batbold introduced the government vested performances in brief. Real economic growth of Mongolia has reached 17.3 percent while in 2008 it was at 8.9 percent. The poverty rate declined to 29 percent from 2010 when it was at 39.2 percent. Mongolia has shifted to the list of countries with middle scale income from the list of low income countries. The unemployment rate has decreased to 7.7 percent, while the human development index, economic indicators and competence has improved on the international level.

On Wednesday the General Election Committee (GEC) reported the official registration of political parties and coalitions to run in the 2012 parliamentary election has concluded.
According to GEC’s information, eleven political parties and two coalitions have been registered, consisting of: the Development Program Party, the Party Implementing Freedom, the Conservative United Party, the Green Party, the Democratic Party, the Civil Will-Green Party, the Mongolian People’s Party, the Mongolian Social Democratic Party, the United Party of Patriots, the Motherland Party and the Civil Movement Party; and the “Justice” joint coalition of Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and National Democratic Party, and the “Third Force” joint coalition of Republican Party and the All-Mongolian Labor Party.

In accordance with Mongolian law, the GEC must decide within five days whether or not to register the party or coalition after examining documents submitted by all political parties. The working group set up to review the registered documents is lead by GEC General Secretary Ch.Sodnomtseren.

The following is an interview with MP L.Gantumur

-A recent parliament meeting discussed the dismissal of Ts.Nyamdorj and MP Ts.Nyamdorj stayed in his position of Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs by the majority poll. What’s your position on that?
-The Democratic Party (DP) defined the dismissal grounds of Ts.Nyamdorj slightly different. Firstly, one reason we want Ts.Nyamdorj to resign is that he lied. He should have told the truth that the Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs mustn’t be involved in the arrest operation of former president N.Enkhbayar. Instead, he claimed that he didn’t know about the operation and was sleeping at that moment when N.Enkhbayar was being arrested. The second reason is, we are wary and suspect that Ts.Nyamdorj will rig the parliamentary election whilst holding back the issue of electronic ID card printing and civil registration.
There are many reasons to suspect him of this. When the General Authority for the State Registration (GASR) shifted to Ts.Nyamdorj’s rule he informed that electronic ID cards won’t be printed. Especially the civil registration of Ulaanbaatar is really blurry. State Registration officials know that they can’t carry out the registration of one million people. It is impossible though for opposition party to supervise if the people were registered in the place where they live pursuant to the law. It is almost tradition that election is intricate through the civil registration. We suspect that this tradition will be repeated in the upcoming parliamentary election. So we wanted to replace Ts.Nyamdorj with someone who is trustworthy and fulfills the duties loyally and tried to support the resignation request. We should appoint a non-politician for the head of the GASR.
-Some MPs who signed the official request to dismiss Ts.Nyamdorj drafted their names from the request. What do you think about that, while some people believe that they exerted political pressure or they are involved in the electoral district deal?
-I don’t know particularly about why they changed their minds to resign the justice minister but I think that they did a really irresponsible thing. To add another thing, attending the parliamentary election and not dismissing Ts.Nyamdorj is proving that the upcoming election will be manipulated. MPs who changed their mind and held back parliament work for 10 days should apologize to the State Great Khural.
-Ts.Nyamdorj pleaded that the parliamentary election arrangement was held back when DP Chairman N.Altankhuyag was Deputy Minister. Is it true?
-We wouldn’t have faced such difficulties if minister Ts.Nyamdorj appointed a professional person who knows much about the programming and system, to the head of the GASR. When Ts.Nyamdorj’s team holds meetings with the counterpart who is printing the ID cards, they don’t understand. A professional person should have been appointed as the head of GASR. It was a really big mistake to fire the professionals at GASR. Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) became obsessed to win the election.
-So does it mean that electronic ID cards can’t be printed before the election? Is there any other ways?
-We can’t leave the matter thinking that it became old. We should accomplish the work we started. Our party is demanding to print ID cards in all possible ways. MPP members’ speculation is to postpone the election date. The Election can’t be postponed. Electronic ID cards should be printed and distributed before the election. At least the electronic ID cards should be printed for Ulaanbaatar city dwellers. Over 600 thousand voters reside in the capital city. The main place where MPs cheat is Ulaanbaatar.
-MPs who stood firmly to make Ts.Nyamdorj resign were enrolled in Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP). What is your view towards that?
-When MPP and DP united, space for an opposition party has been created. Now MPP is filling this space with its members. I bet that MPP and MPORP will re-unite after the election. In other words, MPRP is dividing its party into two parties in order to steal DP’s space in the parliament. MPP and MPRP will run in the election separately and then after the election they will reunite and will rule.
-Some people explain it differently that MPP got rid of its 4 members protecting its member Ts.Nyamdorj.
-It is the first time that MPs have left the party because of one minister. This kind of action won’t happen again.
The Nation divides into two sides when they vote for the election. One side votes for the ruling party while others stand up in the opposition party’s side. Voters of the ruling party are the people who reached a good life and a position by being close to its members. While voters of opposition party are sound minded people who want to arraign the ruling party.
-Is the DP ready to compete with this ruling party?
-We are ready. The most essential arrangement we should carry out is to introduce the feature of our action plan to the public. For instance our party will focus on education. Our bright future is education. We won’t develop unless we obtain good education and qualification. Look at the MPs who are nominated in the upcoming election. The Majority of them are old corrupted and decayed people who served for politics for many years. Why is there is no youth? Because there are no young people who have enough education and qualification to compete with current politicians.