Mongolia’s public governance is currently in a deep crisis. It is because the leadership of political parties who have had a majority in parliament have been stealing from public funds for many years, and so have MPs.
The internal struggle within the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) has gone too deep, making it impossible for them to resolve it within the party. Despite their strong majority in the parliament, the MPP is unable to convene a parliamentary session. Nearly 40 MPs have stopped coming to the parliament altogether, demanding the impeachment of Speaker M. Enkhbold, who is also the Chairman of the MPP. Thousands of people joined in the two demonstrations that took place on the Sukhbaatar Square, but it didn’t lead to the intended outcome of the Speaker stepping down. President Battulga initiated a law that would force the resignation of Speaker with a majority of MP’s votes. The draft legislation has been delivered to the parliament.
The internal conflict within the political party that has the governing power has led our public governance deep into crisis. When the government and the parliament start serving their own interests or the interests of their businesses, instead of serving the people, a political crisis is inevitable. This can not only be seen in Mongolia, but also found in the post-communist Czech Republic.
What happened in Prague
The collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia was followed by their first ever democratic elections. It meant that the Czechs and the Slovaks, who were united ever since World War I, went their separate ways and organized their own parliamentary elections. The Czech Republic came to be governed in turn by the Czech Social Democratic Party and the Civic Democratic Party, but in coalitions between these two parties in most cases.
In the democracy index published by the Economist, the Czech Republic has been a flawed democracy following its downgrade from a full democracy in 2014. Scholars explained that it was because political parties neglected their primary responsibility of representing the people and facilitating the relationship between the state and the civic society. Instead of expressing the interests of civic society, political parties started protecting the hidden business interests of politicians.
In 2010, the Civic Democratic Party won the general election, and their chairman Petr Necas was elected as Prime Minister. The first and foremost promise Necas gave after assuming Prime Minister’s office was to fight corruption. In June 2013, a big corruption case was revealed, involving two high-ranking intelligence officials, former deputy ministers, and some MPs. Jana Nagyova, who was a cabinet member of Petr Necas’ government, had promised some MPs high-ranking positions in state-owned companies if they expressed confidence in the government. It was also revealed that Nagyova ordered the intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance on a group of individuals, including the Prime Minister’s wife. This was met with strong public disapproval. Journalist Jaroslav Kmenta said military intelligence was protecting the interests of a client group, instead of the government’s interests.
Soon afterwards, the government led by Petr Necas, who was often dubbed as Mr. Clean, was dissolved. Subsequently, Miroslava Němcová, who was Speaker of Parliament, was nominated to be the new prime minister. However, President Miloš Zeman, who had only spent three months in his presidency, refused to approve Němcová’s nomination. President Zeman went on to appoint Jiří Rusnok, who was Finance Minister when Zeman was Prime Minister in 1998-2002, as caretaker Prime Minister and established an interim government. The parliament reacted to his decision by stalling for two months without approving Rusnok’s appointment. As a result, a de facto presidential governance was formed.
In August 2013, the Social Democratic Party, the opposition at the time, called for the dissolution of the parliament. Seventy per cent of 200 MPs of the parliament voted in support of the motion, which then resulted in a snap election that took place on 24-25 October 2013. The Social Democratic Party won 50 seats, while the ANO 2011 political party, which had been founded only in the year before, managed to get 47 seats. It meant that the two political parties who had been dominating the parliament suddenly lost their power. New political forces had come onto the scene. The Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-CSL) and the Movement for Direct Democracy group both won 14 seats each, despite having never had a seat in the parliament before. As a result, the Czech Republic went through a redistribution of political power.
In the 2017 general elections, the ANO 2011 party won 78 seats while the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party both secured 15 seats each. A coalition government was formed, and Andrej Babiš, the second richest person in Czech, a billionaire businessman, and Chairman of the ANO, became Prime Minister. Babiš promised to fight corruption and run the country as if he was running his own business. However, in the recent months, the Czech people have been protesting against Babiš and calling for his resignation because of his alleged fraud of 2 million euros in an EU farming subsidy.
What is happening in Ulaanbaatar
It is now only 18 months to go before Mongolia’s next parliamentary election. However, people are increasingly supporting the idea of dissolving the parliament before then, organizing a snap election, and urgently announcing the date of when this election will be held. In November 2018, MEC surveyed a random sample of 750 eligible voters in Ulaanbaatar, and 75 per cent of respondents were in favor of dismissing the parliament. Also, 57 per cent of respondents said they didn’t support any of the political parties, while this percentage was only at 28 per cent in July 2017.
President Battulga has already proposed to dissolve the parliament on two occasions. The first was in connection with the parliament’s inability to bring down the catastrophic air pollution levels in Ulaanbaatar, and the second was based on the 2019 public budget deficits. This time it was the Democratic Party (DP) who proposed the idea again. When MPs Lu. Bold and J. Batzandan announced that they were leaving the party, DP lost their caucus in the parliament. As of today, a total of 16 MPs have supported the dissolution of the parliament.
As per Clause 31 of the law on parliament, dissolving an incumbent parliament and announcing a snap election will require the support of two thirds of the parliament. An irregular election can also be triggered if the parliament has less than 57 members as a result of MPs voluntarily stepping down. However, given the equal divide within MPP, it looks like the latter pathway is unlikely.
It appears that there is no choice but to dissolve the parliament. Signs indicate that an irregular election will be organized this spring and new political forces will come into the parliament. If the same thing as the 2013 Czech election happens, DP may end up establishing a coalition government together with one or two smaller political parties.
The path to democracy may be bumpy, but it has to be in the right direction. Today we are reaping what we sow.
2019.01.16
Trans. by B.Amar