Khurelsukh vs. Khayankhyarvaa

- Duel within MPP -

The Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) board held a meeting on November 12 to discuss recent issues, which sparked a duel between the most powerful members of the party. The board has 30 members, including Chairman of MPP U.Khurelsukh.

In his statement at the meeting, Chairman of MPP and Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh stressed that several key opposing faction members should be ousted. He said that Speaker of Parliament M.Enkhbold should step down for his engagement in the “60 billion MNT” case, Caucus Chairman of MPP D.Khayankhyarvaa for his involvement in the recent controversial issues regarding the small and medium-sized enterprises’ loan misappropriation, and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar S.Batbold for his inactive efforts in measures for reducing air pollution in Ulaanbaatar.

After the board meeting, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh delivered a demand for Mayor S.Batbold’s dismissal to Chairman of the City Council of Ulaanbaatar S.Amarsaikhan.

Under the law, the capital city’s council must review the prime minister’s demand to dismiss the mayor within 15 days.

After U.Khurelsukh’s statement, D.Khayankhyarvaa held a press conference at the State Palace. “I am holding this news conference as a lawmaker, not as the caucus chairman or a member of the party board,” he said.

D.Khayankhyarvaa pointed out that Parliament should set a task force to review whether lawmakers misappropriated assets of the Fund to Develop Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME).

...Law enforcement agencies and court are operating under the prime minister’s administration and

authority...

He stated that if lawmakers are proven to have engaged in processes and activities of laundering money by transferring their loans from the fund to non-bank financial institutions, they have to be investigated by law enforcement authorities.

D.Khayankhyarvaa noted that he demanded Speaker M.Enkhbold to establish a task force from Parliament’s Standing Committee on Budget to conduct reviews for the operations of all state funds.

“I am going to demand the prime minister to put forward a proposal to replace all Cabinet ministers who were involved in the SME loan allocations with new ministers to Parliament soon,” D.Khayankhyarvaa stated.

“The party did not take effective measures to dismantle issues surrounding loan allocations, and I did not criticize the party chairman at all, but criticized the prime minister and president as they are both members of the National Security Council and have been making strong statements on the dissolution of Parliament.”

D.Khayankhyarvaa said he believes the three members of the National Security Council, including the president, premier and Speaker of Parliament, should think about what they said in front of the public, and they should not make political moves to push the ongoing controversial issue away from themselves.

The lawmaker added that as he believes Mongolians voted for MPP in the 2016 parliamentary elections to address the nation’s economic challenges and enforce justice, the party should not seek to disband Cabinet.

D.Khayankhyarvaa said, “In his statement in Parliament, U.Khurelsukh noted that as he is like a lion without teeth that just roars, his reforms to bring justice to society, strengthen discipline and ensure accountability and transparency in the state apparatus has failed, but today law enforcement agencies such as intelligence, police, Independent Agency Against Corruption, prosecutor and court are operating under the prime minister’s administration and authority, I cannot understand what else is required for the prime minister to carry out his reform. Actually, the premier needs to fulfill his promise to succeed in the reform.”

On Tuesday, the party’s caucus met to review the nomination of the new agricultural minister and D.Khayankhyarvaa’s dismissal from the caucus chairmanship.

On November 13, D.Khayankhyarvaa said that he submitted a demand for Cabinet’s resignation, but it is unclear how many lawmakers are in support.

As the caucus supported the nomination of lawmaker Ch.Ulaan as the next minister of food, agriculture and light industry, Parliament will review the appointment of Ch.Ulaan this week.

As of Tuesday’s 7:00 p.m., the caucus did not reach a consolidated decision on D.Khayankhyarvaa’s dismissal.