MPP rejects’ system of governance choice in referendum
On Monday, President Kh.Battulga has fully withdrawn all of his constitutional proposals from the constitutional amendment draft reviews, made official by his letter sent to Speaker of Parliament G.Zandanshatar that day. In the same letter, he proposed another question to be added to the referendum -- whether the Mongolian people would like a presidential republic or a parliamentary republic as their system of governance.
The letter was submitted to the speaker by Z.Enkhbold, the president’s chief of staff.
The president emphasized the need to include a question on whether the Mongolian public wants a presidential or parliamentary republic, and attached his version of the draft decree of constitutional referendum.
The president said in his letter, “The basis of our nation’s sovereignty, our Constitution, began its amendment debates with questionable legal grounds, followed by ever mounting disputes. Instead of amending the document with genuine and sensible solutions that substantially tackle issues that became evident in our 30 years of democracy, the decision has been made to impose a shortsighted version of the Constitution that serves to benefit parliamentary re-elections.”
Kh.Battulga lamented that despite his efforts working together with Parliament with its constitutional proposals and proposing his own amendments, it did not yield any results.
The document continued, “Meaningful proposals that would have had significant positive outcome have all been eliminated, namely, the right for the prime minister to form his or her own Cabinet, ban on Parliament members simultaneously serving as Cabinet members, amendments towards ensuring stability of our election system, increasing the number of Parliament members and have them truly represent their constituencies who work for the future of our country.”
“Therefore, I hereby notify complete withdrawal of my proposals from the constitutional amendment draft.”
While he agreed that the Democratic Party’s proposal for a referendum was the right decision, he complained that instead of laying down forced constitutional amendments on the public, Parliament should give the people a chance to choose whether they would like a presidential republic or a parliamentary republic. He reasoned that a presidential republic will free the executive branch from political “ropes and liabilities”. At the end of the letter, he requested Parliament to review his proposal regarding the referendum.
However, on the same day, the Mongolia People’s Party (MPP) parliamentary group held an emergency meeting to discuss this matter and decided that the party will reject this proposal. MPP is currently the majority in Parliament. It is also not possible to submit it as a proposal for parliamentary debate, as per the Law on Debating Constitutional Amendments.
The second issue the party discussed during the meeting was a proposal from lawmaker T.Ayursaikhan, who proposed that a strategic mine which the government has 51 percent or more under its ownership must distribute royalties to Mongolian citizens. The MPP parliamentary caucus decided that this issue will be discussed and resolved at a later date.