Category Archives: JD Democratization

Stability of Presidential Election System

By Julian Dierkes In June, Mongolians will participate in a presidential election again. The electoral system has remained largely unchanged since the first free election in 1993. In late January 2021 a conference on “Democratic Challenges in Asia and Mongolia” … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Elections, JD Democratization, Party Politics, Populism, Presidential 2021, Research on Mongolia | Tagged | Leave a comment

Presidential Election Outlook

By Julian Dierkes Parties will nominate candidates my May 2 before Mongolians will vote on a new president on June 9, 2021. Depending on the outcome of the election this will be the 5th or 6th president since the democratic … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Democratic Party, Foreign Policy, JD Democratization, Military, Mongolian People's Party, Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, National Labor Party, Presidential 2021 | Tagged | Leave a comment

PM Khurelsukh Resigns Suddenly

By Julian Dierkes Over 30 years of Mongolia’s democratic history we have seen a lot of surprising developments. By comparison, recent months seemed relatively calm. The Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) cruised to a first-ever consecutive election victory, seemingly on the … Continue reading

Posted in Health, JD Democratization, Mongolian People's Party, Party Politics, Politics, Presidential 2021, Protest, Social Movements | Tagged | Leave a comment

Democratic Convulsions

By Julian Dierkes Two ongoing convulsions of democracy are having me reflect on Mongolia, elections, and political system challenges: the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan According to Katie Putz, one of the choices that is coming out of the revolutionary upheavals … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Elections, JD Democratization, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and ..., Politics, United States | Leave a comment

Campaign Strategies under Bloc Voting

By Julian Dierkes One of the great puzzles of the Mongolian electoral system choice of multi-member pluralities is how to run a strategic campaign for a party. If I imagined myself to be a campaign operator, what would I do? … Continue reading

Posted in Democratic Party, Elections, Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization, Mongolian People's Party, Party Politics, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Parties and Candidate Demography Update

By Julian Dierkes The final list of 606 approved candidates was released at the beginning of the week and we, here at Mongolia Focus, are still processing the approval or lack thereof of certain candidates. The picture has changed a … Continue reading

Posted in Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization | Tagged | Leave a comment

Constitutional Reforms and Political Party Creation

By Julian Dierkes and Gerelt-Od Erdenebileg The Mongolian Parliament has passed a number of constitutional amendments on November 14, 2019. Elements of this constitutional reform had been discussed by many political parties and politicians for the last twenty years. Among … Continue reading

Posted in Constitution, Democracy, Elections, Gerelt-Od Erdenebileg, Governance, JD Democratization, Party Politics, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Back to the 2008 Future in Voting?

By Enkhtsetseg D and Julian Dierkes After toying with the idea of a mixed electoral system, in which 50 seats were to be distributed based on the FPTP system and 26 seats to be distributed proportionally from an open party … Continue reading

Posted in Elections, Enkhtsetseg Dagva, Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ever-Creative Electoral System Discussions

By Julian Dierkes Long-time readers of our blog (really committed readers are looking back on 8 1/2 years of analyses!) will know that I get very interested in elections and that many of my collaborators have also chipped on an … Continue reading

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Constitutional Amendments Adopted

By Julian Dierkes While some details remain curiously unclear (as is so frustratingly often the case with Mongolian legislation and reporting on it, the Ikh Khural approved a number of constitutional amendments on Nov 15. While these are subject to … Continue reading

Posted in Constitution, Democracy, Elections, Governance, JD Democratization, JD Mining Governance, Judiciary, Mining Governance, Party Politics, Policy, Policy, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Constitutional Amendments

By Julian Dierkes and Mendee Jargalsaikhan Constitutional change has been discussed in Mongolia for some time. Despite the super-majority that the MPP holds in parliament at the moment, we were not expecting amendments to actually be proposed, but now they … Continue reading

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Roadmap for New Parties

By Julian Dierkes Let’s imagine scenarios that could lead to real political change, not only a change in leadership and possibly the party landscape, but a re-orientation of Mongolian democracy, a change of political culture, that gives Mongolians more of … Continue reading

Posted in Constitution, Democracy, Elections, Governance, Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization, National Labor Party, Party Politics, Politics, Presidential 2021, Protest, Younger Mongolians | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Likelihood of Political Renewal

By  Julian Dierkes Why I am generally optimistic about Mongolian developments, Mongolian politics presents a lot of challenges and the current state of affairs causes more despair than it has in the previous 12+ years that I’ve been paying attention. … Continue reading

Posted in Constitution, Corruption, Democracy, Democratic Party, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Ikh Khural 2020, Inequality, JD Democratization, Judiciary, Mining Governance, Mongolian People's Party, Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, Nationalism, Party Politics, Policy, Politics, Populism, Presidential 2021, Social Movements | Tagged | Leave a comment

Not the end of Democracy?

By Julian Dierkes On March 27 2019, the Mongolian parliament passed legislation giving the National Security Council greater authority over judicial appointments and dismissals. This very sudden decision has caused a great deal concern among international observers of Mongolia and … Continue reading

Posted in Constitution, Governance, JD Democratization, Judiciary, Law, Public Service | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Beginning of the End of Democracy?

By Julian Dierkes and Boldsaikhan Sambuu Mongolians have voiced strong reactions to the proposal and the passage of a series of amendments to the laws governing the appointment and dismissal of judges, the Prosecutor General, and the Head of the … Continue reading

Posted in Boldsaikhan Sambuu, Corruption, Governance, JD Democratization, Judiciary, Law, Public Service | Leave a comment