SPEECH BY PRESIDENT KHALTMAAGIIN BATTULGA AT THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE STATE GREAT KHURAL
“Esteemed Members of Parliament,
Speaker of Parliament,
Prime Minister,
and fellow Mongolians,
The Parliament has convened its extraordinary session at a time of high responsibility to amend a law of special importance.
During the opening of the Fall Session of the Parliament in 2018, I reminded that, “The democratic new constitution served as an important mechanism in facilitating the transition from one social system to another. But now, we need to amend the Constitution in accordance with the developmental needs and social requirements. Now is the time to thank the current Constitution and those who drafted it and move on to the discussion of the next version of the Constitution.”
That time is upon us. The Mongolian people and the majority of political parties agree with the idea of making a reform by constitutional means in accordance with the developmental needs and social requirements of Mongolia. I stand firm in my position that was expressed in my speech during the opening of the Fall Session of Parliament in terms of what should be regarded important and what principles and grounds must be adhered to when amending the Constitution.
Allow me to briefly introduce the Constitutional Amendment Bill that I formulated, within the power vested in me by the Constitution, after systematizing the suggestions and proposals made by the public during the discussion of the constitutional amendment. The full version has been delivered to you in hard copy.
Regarding the rationale and necessity for formulating a Constitutional Amendment Bill and notable clauses included:
In the 27 years following the adoption of the democratic Constitution, we, Mongolians, have not only moved forward with certain accomplishments, but have confronted challenges and obstacles engendered by factors such as globalization, human conscience, and social development. For instance, the people’s right to exercise the state power, the main concept of the Constitution, has been deprived and the policy on equal distribution and proper exploitation of natural resources is floundering.
With the reputation of the parliament and its members declining every year, doubt in parliamentary system has increased, political parties have turned into groups with shared interest, misconducts of gaining a high government position by means of buying the people’s right to elect and their votes and abusing their power for personal benefits have aggravated, the sustainable development policy has sunk due to the failure of the cabinet, that is formed as a result of election, to implement its action program and inconsistency of its authority, the reputation of the judicial branch has hit rock bottom, difficulties have arisen due to the huge gap between urban and rural development and centralization of the population, and the citizens are not equally receiving welfare and government services.
It is the shared duty of the State and the people of Mongolia to correct the existing deformities and seek our opportunities of making progress with joint efforts. Over the last decade, constitutional amendment has been on the agenda of public discussion on all levels and some citizens and civil society organizations initiated constitutional amendment bills and submitted them to the Parliament, which were closely considered by the Parliament, thus leading to the drafting of constitutional amendment bills by some MPs in 2011 and 2012.
Furthermore, a working group established in 2013 by an ordinance of the Speaker of Parliament concluded that a constitutional amendment was necessary, and another working group established in 2015 by an ordinance of the Speaker of Parliament formulated and proposed a Constitutional Amendment Bill.
In 2016, the Prime Minister formed a working group composed of scholars and experts to study whether or not there is a necessity to amend the Constitution. The working group produced a report with 46 clauses concluding that “It is fit to amend some articles, sections, and articles of the Constitution.”
The current Parliament has also taken a courageous step towards amending the Constitution and has done certain works such as holding public consultations and introducing and discussing the bill in Parliament.
The Secretariat of the State Great Khural compiled all the suggestions made by the people and forwarded it to the Office of the President before the Naadam festival. As the head of state elected by the people, I believed that it is suitable to formulate a Constitutional Amendment Bill, which complies with the fundamental principles of the Constitution and reflects the citizens’ suggestions regarding matters that require improvement and were not outlined in the bill that has already been submitted to the Parliament, and introduce the bill under consideration of the Parliament.
This bill is not something that was conceived over a day. It must be seen as a document that took into account all the achievements and mistakes of the past 27 years, was discussed over the past decade, and was well scrutinized in the minds of the people. There is a historic lesson behind each proposal. We are learning from our mistakes and counteracting the mistakes that we could possibly make in the future.
1. Mongolia proclaimed its independence as a result of the 1911 National Freedom Revolution of Restoring Independence as well as the 1921 People’s Revolution. However, a national independence referendum was held on October 20, 1945, under external observation. With a turnout of 98.5 percent, the Mongolian people voted for their independence, thus making a significant step towards gaining recognition from the international community. After overcoming numerous obstacles, Mongolia succeeded in its attempt to receive international recognition of its independence in 1961 with accession to the United Nations, thus fully ensuring its independence. Recorded history of those years shows that there were certain individuals who came up with proposals and initiatives to become part of the northern neighbor or give up Mongolia’s independence.
In this age, there is no dispute over tendencies to refute the independence of Mongolia in the international community. However, it is required of us to make a definite adjustment in the Constitution because events and bitter experiences of some countries showed that instituting legal protection aimed at further strengthening our independence and safeguarding it for generations to come is the right thing to do. This objective found reflection in the Constitutional Amendment Bill with Clause 6 of Section 1 of Article 25 of the Constitution that says, “Mongolia shall not permit any attempt to negate its independence and territorial integrity and holding a national referendum with intentions of this nature is prohibited.”
2. Since 1992, Mongolia has held 7 parliamentary elections and 6 presidential elections and local elections of the same number. It can be said that in the course of these years, candidates fully surrendered to the ways of obtaining votes with the help of money, goods, gifts, and any form of service and support and the constituents to electing these candidates, while many of us have been guided by a narrow interest of buying and selling votes and illegal activities have been carried out on a wide range and under a detailed scheme.
Such unscrupulous acts are most definitely offences that are distorting the constitutional concept on the people of Mongolia exercising the state power and are in violation of the provisions of the law on prohibiting illegal seizure of state power or attempted seizure. Because such schemes and illegal acts were actually carried out, and there is a high probability of repetition, it is crucial to regulate this matter by the Constitution with the intention of putting an end and tighten the responsibility of culprits in the relevant law. Therefore, Section 4 of Article 21 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill states, “Plots and attempts to impede or exert influence on the citizens’ right to elect by illegal means shall be deemed an offence against Article 1 and 2 of the Constitution.”
3. To further strengthen and guarantee the operational independence of the Central Bank, which is in charge of formulating and implementing the monetary policy, ensuring price stability, and sustaining the stability of the financial market and the banking sector, it is necessary to add certain provisions in the Constitution. Despite of finding reflection in the relevant law, these regulations are not present in the Constitution, therefore a proposal from the Mongolbank has been conveyed in the bill.
4. Consolidation of national unity and strengthening of the power given to administrative authorities and the relevant rules of leadership has become increasingly important. Dereliction of duties and role conflicts in the dispersed administrative units have significantly slowed down national development over the past years. Therefore, it is imperative that we transfer the power over land ownership to the Cabinet and the authority of a bigger administrative unit and utilize the land in line with our development policy and goals. In relation to this, I propose to specify in Section 6 of Article 6 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill that, “A decision on allowing the citizens of Mongolia to own land of public ownership and allowing citizens and legal entities to possess and use land for a specific period of time shall only be made by the Cabinet and the Governors of the capital city, cities, and provinces under conditions and procedures as provided by law.”
5. Mongolia is considered one of the leading countries in terms of its natural resources and minerals reserve, however, it is fair to say that we failed to determine and pursue an optimum policy towards gaining benefits from the resources and utilizing the resources in an accessible manner, thus receiving good amount of criticism and insult and losing more than we could afford.
By inserting the basic criteria for exploitation of natural resources in the Constitution and announcing it to the world, it is important that we create favorable conditions for cooperating with fair investors who respect the core national interests of Mongolia in a stable legal environment without doubts and risks. Therefore, I believe that it is necessary to set out in the Constitution the principles and procedures for utilizing the natural resources that belong to the people and under public ownership in an appropriate, beneficial, and accessible manner, thus protecting the rights of our present-day and future citizens.
The idea has been outlined in the following provision.
Section 2 of Article 6 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill states that, “The land except that in citizen’s private ownership, as well as the subsoil with its mineral wealth, forests, water resources, and game is public property. Within the activities surrounding the exploitation of natural resources, principles of ensuring equity, justice, national security, and sustainable development shall be complied with. Mineral wealth in the subsoil can be exploited by a legal entity in Mongolia in accordance with the principles provided in this section and on the condition of a license issued by the government. In case the government engages in joint exploitation of subsoil wealth of a land of special importance, the expenses will be covered by the investor, and the government of Mongolia will receive dividend in the amount not less than 51 percent of the income after tax. The investor’s spending will be factual. The government will oversee the spending of the investor and report to the citizens. The revenue generated with joint exploitation of subsoil wealth with an investor will be accumulated in and spent by a Wealth Fund. The requirements for the exploitation of natural resources, the structure of the Wealth Fund, and its operational procedure will be defined by a law.”
6. Because the political parties that have been active over the last 27 years failed to mature as institutions capable of promoting national development, their social status has deteriorated, and the people are fed up and beginning to display distrust. The main reasons behind the deterioration of the status of political parties include lack of intra-party democracy, dominance of tendencies to resolve issues with factional plotting, erosion of principles of fairness in participation and equality in operations, and lack of transparency in funding.
Although political parties are a form of social organization, they are special institutions that exercise state power, by choice of the citizens, make decisions related to state affairs on behalf of the citizens, and conduct wealth distribution. Thus, it is legitimately needed of us to plant internal democracy, accountability, and transparency in political parties. Political parties are the basic means of establishing the State. However, the low standards imposed on political parties and their lack of transparency have become factors of malfunction in the affairs of the State.
Failure to make a substantial change towards reforming political parties could possibly complicate national development and the livelihood of the people, thus basic regulatory provisions in the Constitution are required. As such, I propose the insertion of certain clauses in the Constitution to give political parties equal opportunities at the starting point and to make their funding transparent. Let us set an eligibility criterion that political parties may gain a seat in parliament after gathering the support of 5 percent of the voters or 100 thousand votes. As for the registration of political parties, I specified in my bill that the central election body may admit and register a political party that has fifty thousand and one members at the minimum.
With the adoption of the amendment, the Constitution that has been in force for 27 years will be upgraded and institute a fresh legal environment. It will mean that political parties will have to start off at the same point and compete under the same conditions. Now, political parties are going to be given the opportunities to earn public support with the ideology that they represent, rather than competing with each other with their wealth, and to achieve their goal of forming a cabinet if they receive majority support. All parties wishing to participate in the coming election will have to reapply for registration in conformity with the amendment. These clauses reflected in the Constitutional Amendment Bill must become the basic foundations of the Law on Political Parties of Mongolia.
7. In response to the requirements to increase the quality and effectiveness of legislations and other decisions adopted by the parliament, eliminate the practices where few MPs exert direct influence on the stability of the cabinet and lead to its dismissal, reduce the risks of MPs being invaded by indecent influence, and increase the efficiency of parliamentary oversight on the cabinet, I believe that increasing the number of parliamentarians is the right thing to do. In view of this, I deem it necessary to fully restrict the parliamentarians’ right to hold a double government position other than that of a prime minister.
During the adoption of the 1992 Constitution, the population of Mongolia counted 2,158,352 whereas it reached 3,238,479 in 2019 with an addition of 1,080,117 citizens. In other words, a parliamentarian represented 28,399 citizens in 1992, and this number is 42,611 in 2019. While the population increased by one third, the number of parliamentarians still remains few in comparison with the population, and the findings of a relevant study showed that this leaves negative impact on separation of state power and the system of checks and balances and increases the risks of improper influence in parliament.
There is a methodology on calculating how many members are appropriate for a parliament in order for it to implement its duties of “making law, representing the people, and exercising oversight on the executive branch” properly. As per this methodology, the suggested number of members in the Parliament of a country of 3 million and 200 thousand is 114, and I propose the number 108. This is the most favorable option that suits the representative ability of the parliament and the workload of the elected members.
Because the parliament of Mongolia has few members (76), there are negative consequences, including the facts that all matters are resolved by a simple majority and very few MPs adopt a law or reach decision on critical matters of the country. In particular, plenary sessions proceed with majority of parliament or 39 MPs in attendance, and laws are adopted by votes of only 20 MPs (less than 1/3). This entails a negative outcome where unsound, impractical, unstable, and ineffective laws are passed.
8. Out of the 7 parliamentary elections that were held since 1992, only the 2012 election was contested with a mixed electoral system. Experts believe that the mixed electoral system was of great significance not only because many political parties were represented in parliament, but also the opinions and ideas of the citizens were well relayed. A parliament composed of multi-party representatives is advantageous in terms of resolving matters by means of consensus and minimizing the dominance of one party in decision-making.
Moreover, the 33 political parties registered with the Supreme Court repeatedly expressed a position that proportional representation or mixed electoral system should be legalized by the Constitution.
Around the world, countries such as Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and France use mixed electoral system in their parliamentary elections. It is common among countries with multi-party system to opt for combined or proportional representation system.
As for Mongolia, with due consideration of the Constitution, our traditional characteristics, and the maturity level of political parties and owing to the need to ensure the system of checks and balances in the executive branch and secure stability, it is absolutely necessary to transform our election system into a clear and suitable version. It is especially important that we put an end to the abnormal practice where the political party in power amends the Law on Election in line with its own interest before the election.
Therefore, it is ideal to clearly define the electoral system applicable in the parliamentary election in the Constitution. Let us create the conditions for blocking the repetition of such unacceptable acts that are observed before every election, where the political party in power amends the Law on Election, thus changing the electoral system and relevant procedures, in a manner that serves their interest.
9. The Constitution defines the duration of the mandate of parliament as four years, and this placed the parliament in an unofficial mode of operation where it makes political appointments in the first year of its mandate and comes up with and implements political decisions and policies dedicated to the next election in the last year of its mandate. By doing so, the parliament has been under criticism that it performs its primary duty for only two years, and the validity of this claim has not only been admitted by experts and scholars, but also the parliamentarians and politicians themselves.
But the United Nations and its member states envision their sustainable development policies for 5, 10, 15 years in the medium and long term, in correspondence with which we must pay attention to the necessity to reconsider the duration of the mandate of our policy implementers. In particular, 95 parliaments out of the parliaments of 187 countries exercise their power for the period of 5 years.
In the Constitutional Amendment Bill, I am proposing a 5-year duration of parliamentary mandate. Studies suggest that economic cycles last about 5 years. There have been times when the 4-year election cycle was not consistent with the economic cycle. In view of the international practices of determining the duration of parliamentary mandate in 4, 5, 6 years, we are picking the average number.
Doing so will establish the foundations of ensuring political stability, planning our social and economic policy in coordination with the economic policies and plans of our neighbor countries, and implementing the policy in a stable manner. In relation to the lengthening of the duration of parliamentary mandate, all other terms of office will be 5 years.
10. I believe that the scale and extent of the right to initiate laws must be set out in the Constitution in compatibility with the international standards. This will prevent the president or a MP from initiating specific laws such as fiscal law or tax law that should indeed be formulated by the cabinet. As outlined in Section 1 of Article 26 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, “The president, members of the parliament, and the cabinet have the right to legislative initiative and the extent of their right will be determined by law.”
The old practice that allowed a single MP to initiate a law of significant importance had its own fault of prompting certain interests, therefore, it must be limited and regulated by the law. This regulation will concern the president as well.
11. In any country, progress is made by identifying a visionary development policy and objectives that will produce the best possible outcome and ensuring the stability of the implementation. With respect to this, there is a necessity to establish an institution in charge of developmental policy planning. Countries that constitutionalized and defined the legal basis for the national institution on developmental policy planning are not uncommon.
By fully legalizing the matter of ensuring coordination and planning of the long, medium, and short-term development policies, the implementation of development policy documents will be relatively stable regardless of election cycles.
Since of the adoption of the democratic Constitution, 14 cabinets were formed and 12 of them were dismissed prematurely. Because each cabinet lasted 1.8 years on average, development policies and objectives were left behind and were not implemented as planned.
Therefore, there is a real necessity to define the legal basis of the institution in charge of development policy and planning in the Constitution, increase the accountability of the cabinet and improve the quality of their performance. Furthermore, I inserted a clause requiring the cabinet to regard two documents—the National Security Concept and the sustainable development policy–as key principles in the course of its activities and action program without fail.
In addition to fixing the duration of the mandate of the cabinet at 5 years and increasing the opportunities and conditions for implementing the development policies and goals, it is fit to limit the rights of cabinet members except from the prime minister to hold other positions. Because this is a demand of the society and long-standing agenda, an explanation is perhaps redundant.
12. An assessment of performance of the 1992 Constitution of Mongolia says, “In any country, it is impossible to separate national independence, sovereignty and national security issues from the State. In brief, the State is their guarantor. If the State lacks the capacity to fulfill its fundamental duty, and furthermore if the society’s recognition of its legitimate superiority is falling, then there is no other way, but to consider it as a threat to national security.”
The Parliament amended the Law on Public Service in 2008 and revised in 2017, attempting each time to establish public service that is professional and independent from politics by means of enforcing political neutrality among public servants and improving the conditions and guarantee for them to carrying out their duties independently, however, there is still existent politicization in the staffing policy at the administrative level. The practice of mass firing of core civil servants after every election has now become a normality. Aside from reducing the impact of the policy and functions of the State and tampering with the opportunities of stable policy implementation and its continuity, it is also weakening the capacity of public service and leaving a negative impact of instability.
Therefore, it is necessary to stipulate and secure with the Constitution the matter of the appointment of a state secretary, who is tasked with duties of leading a ministry, a basic structure for formulating state policy, implementing state policy and decisions in conformity with the laws and the policy and decisions of the Cabinet, and assisting the Ministers in carrying out their duties in a timely manner; as well as the conditions and guarantee for and the rights of core civil servants to be promoted in a tier-based principle.
13. The establishment of the judicial system based on the administrative and territorial units is the main obstacle in optimal and accessible judicial service, which is one of the state services. I proposed a clause to regulate this matter which was hindering the equal distribution of workload in the judiciary. Establishing the judiciary based on communities, instead of the administrative units, will be a pure organizational task without requiring additional funds.
My new proposal is the establishment of a Judicial Disciplinary Committee. The Disciplinary Committee will be an independent structure encompassing the Qualifications Committee and the Ethics Committee of the Judicial General Council, and its main duty will concern accreditation of judges who demonstrated lack of discipline.
Although the parliament adopted and implemented a package law aimed at ensuring the independence of judges and improving their discipline and accountability, it is fair to conclude that an efficient system of holding judges accountable is still not in place.
Despite of an active Judicial Ethics Committee that is responsible for charging judges with moral accountability and other possible ways, the impact of its activities on investigating and resolving cases is very unsatisfactory. For instance, the Judicial Ethics Committee received and investigated 1,135 complaints concerning 1,706 judges between 2014-2018, refused to file a discipline case on about 80 percent, and investigated about 20 percent. As such, it charged 69 judges with disciplinary punishment, but about 80 percent of these cases were nullified by jury. During this time, only 14 judges received disciplinary punishment by a court ruling out of 1,135 complaints in total.
Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade the judicial system in line with international standards, transfer all activities of investigating and resolving judges’ offenses related to professional duty and ethics to the Judicial Disciplinary Committee, enhance the appellate court proceedings in case any side doesn’t agree with the decision of the Disciplinary Committee, and determine in the relevant law the manner of the proceedings distinguishable than regular court proceedings on an administrative case.
14. If we take a look at the most common constitutional rules across the world, the legal status of capital cities is specifically designed. In Mongolia, the legal status of the capital city is not up-to-date, especially the existing non-ideal understanding and approach of equating the status of the districts of the capital city with that of soums must be fully revised. It is indispensable to amend the Constitution in a manner that enables the capital city to develop at a more distinctive pace than the other administrative and territorial units.
To offer the best possible solution to the current circumstances, the centralized population of Ulaanbaatar, and pressing infrastructure issues, I deemed it fit to prescribe the division of the capital city into cities instead of districts. Doing so will create a legal environment within the framework of which districts will be able to function with the status of a city and settle their pressing issues independently, immediately, and rationally.
Furthermore, I believe it is necessary to make constitutional amendments that will settle the issues surrounding other cities that have been pending resolution for many years, define cities as administrative units, and clarify their classification and insert the follow-up amendments in the relevant articles and sections. In spite of Mongolia being a unitary state and not a federal one, the Constitution provides that revision of an administrative and territorial unit shall be considered and decided by the Parliament on the basis of a proposal by a respective local parliament and local population, which has produced negative implications in practice. For example, Orkhon Aimag has been trying in vain to transfer the territory settled on by its citizens to its jurisdiction from Bulgan Aimag for many years.
Therefore, I stipulated in Section 3 of Article 57 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill that, “Revision of an administrative and territorial unit shall be decided by the Parliament under due consideration of a proposal by the Cabinet based on an assessment of the economic structure and population distribution.” Doing so will create the legal basis for establishing a new city other than Ulaanbaatar.
I am proposing amendments to a total of 20 provisions in the Constitution with regard to these five package of subjects, which constitute 28.5 percent of all the provisions in the Constitutions.
Speaker of Parliament,
and esteemed Members of Parliament,
I am proposing and introducing under consideration of the Parliament a Constitutional Amendment Bill that I formulated within my right to legislative initiative. These proposals are the pinnacle of a collection of the desire of and the missions assigned by our citizens and public discussions that were held in the last decade. I am confident that the Parliament will discuss and further refine the bill.
Members of Parliament, following the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, the Parliament will necessarily have to take three steps.
First. It is necessary to revise the Law on Political Parties in accordance with the amendments of the Constitution. Let us establish a uniform and equal starting point in the policy competition in politics by disbanding all existing political parties. Let us register and authorize the activities of a political party that has fifty thousand and one actual members at the minimum. During the last parliamentary election, the General Election Committee (GEC) recorded a total of a million and 912,901 voters. If we suppose that the number has exceeded two million by now, it is simply nonsensical and legally unjustifiable for a political party that has not gained the confidence of at least 2.5 percent of the voters and garnered members of such number to try to participate in the policy-making process of the State. Rather than the Supreme Court, the General Election Committee is more suitable to take charge of the registration of political parties and determine issues related to the credibility and overlaps of their memberships. Aside from organizing the parliamentary, presidential, and local elections, the General Election Committee may organize intra-party elections. This will make a good pre-requisite for holding undisputed and fair intra-party elections. Let us adopt a procedure where political parties have no ownership or immovable property and the Cabinet provides an office the size of which is determined by the number of members and the support it earned in elections. We can learn this from democracies around the world.
Second. A new Law on Election law must be approved in ratification of the constitutional amendment. It is important that the election law meets the conditions for providing equal promotional opportunities to political parties and politicians. It is my wish that the parliamentarians brainstorm about how to keep the competition of candidates clear of dependence on money and how to shift the focus from the interest of a constituency to that of the nation and the people and adopt a new version of the Law on Election that will reverse the mistakes of the past 30 years at once.
Third. Members of Parliament, if your mission of adopting the Constitutional Amendment that has been on the agenda for the last decade is completed, it is time to regard it as fulfillment of a historic duty and dissolve the Parliament and immediately announce the next election.
We need a FRESH START and a NEW BEGINNING for this country. By taking civil and political courage and making these steps, you will be doing an honorable service that will be remembered in our democratic history.
Members of Parliament and fellow Mongolians,
With the Constitutional Amendment that resolves the pile of basic challenges before our country and fully reflects the present-day and future objectives and needs, as well as the revision of the Law on Political Parties and the Law on Election, Mongolia is about to embrace a new era of advancement.
Public participation is crucial in this process, therefore, focus all your attention to the Parliament chamber these days.
I wish you success.
May change and reform be made intensively and goodness spread. “
