Parliamentary elections were held in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

on 28 June 2012 to elect 76 members of the

State Great Khural The State Great Khural is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia,Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, Foreign Service office of Montsame News Agency, , p. 40 located in the Government Palace in the capital Ulaanbaatar. History 191 ...

. Also held during the parliamentary elections was the

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

election, the first time both were held at the same time. For the first time, the election used vote counting machines under new parliamentary election laws to make the election fair.

Electoral system

A new parliamentary election law introduced the status of domestic election observers who are nominated by

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.

Parties

On 24 May the Democratic Party (DP) and

Mongolian People's Party The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) is a social democratic political party in Mongolia. It was founded as a communist party in 1920 by Mongolian revolutionaries and is the oldest political party in Mongolia. The party played an important role ...

(MPP) announced their candidates for the election. A new party that participated was Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party which was established in 2010 by Nambaryn Enkhbayar. Prior to January, the Democratic Party was a part of the

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

in government with the Mongolian People's Party, but later withdrew to focus on the campaign.

Campaign

A large share of the posters were for individual candidates, though showing party logos, which were perceived as being aimed at voters in specific constituencies. By contrast, advertising on television was much broader and much more focused on the parties. A spate of mining concessions to foreign companies has led to an influx of money into the country. This was also followed by accusations of corruption and a lack of accountability over the political leadership for squandering the country's natural resources and at least tacitly tolerating the mistreatment of Mongolian workers at mines operated by foreign companies. All political parties campaigned against corruption before the election. Mining and Energy Minister Dashdorjiin Zorigt said that "the only way out of this situation is to have more growth that is more just." According to the opinion polling firm, Sumati Luvsandendev, 90% of Mongolians believe that politicians benefit from some form of "special arrangements" over mining concessions to foreign companies. Rapper Tugsjargal Munkherdene, also known as "Gee," partook in campaigning against corruption. including a controversial video clip against the alleged exploitation by ethnic Chinese. As a result of public pressure, there was a speculation of tightening restrictions for investment in the mining sector after the election. The MPRP campaigned on a platform of "

resource nationalism Resource nationalism is the tendency of people and governments to assert control over natural resources located within their territory. As a result, resource nationalism conflicts with the interests of multinational corporations. The approach ...

." ''

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'' suggested its participation in government could impact the mining sector, including the

Tavan Tolgoi Tavan Tolgoi (, also Tavantolgoi, Tavantolgoy, "Five Hill") is one of the world's largest untapped coking and thermal coal deposits, located in Tsogttsetsii, Ömnögovi Province, Mongolia. It has a total estimated resource of 6.4 billion tonne ...

coal project, which the MPRP wants controlled by Mongolians. Other issues included variations by the parties on how to use the windfall from mining concessions most efficiently, including pensions, infrastructure and other subsidies for local industries. The Democratic Party expressed it was best placed to help the poor and unemployed, while calling the Mongolian People's Party held to the elite and foreign mining interests.

Opinion polls

The Sant Maral Foundation and analysts had suggested that the Democratic Party would get a small plurality over the Mongolian People's Party, though neither party would get a majority.

Conduct

The polling stations were open from 7:00 to 20:00. Voting took place using

electronic voting machine An electronic voting machine is a voting machine based on electronics. Two main technologies exist: ''optical scan voting system, optical scanning'' and ''direct-recording electronic voting machine, direct recording'' (DRE). Optical scanning ...

s (EVMs) for the first time. The voting machines were set up by the Canadian company

Dominion Voting Systems Dominion Voting Systems Corporation is a North American company that produces and sells electronic voting hardware and software, including voting machines and tabulators, in Canada and the United States. The company's headquarters are in Toro ...

to report results immediately to the General Election Committee rather than any kind of tabulation by the local election officials. Of the 1,833,000 eligible voters, 65% turned out to vote. There were 544 candidates, of which 174 were women. Upon voting, President

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (; born 30 March 1963) is a Mongolian politician and journalist who served as President of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017. He previously served as prime minister in 1998 and again from 2004 to 2006. Elbegdorj was one of the k ...

said "Today, we Mongolians face an important time to make a historic choice to address Mongolia's development and democracy."

Results

Four seats were unfilled following the elections; in two of these constituencies the winning candidate received less than 28% of the vote, while the victory of two MPP candidates was annulled due to breaches of electoral law.

Reactions

Mongolian President

pointed out he was led to believe that all parties had so far accepted the result thus a coalition is likely to be formed in August. He then added that "the Mongolian People's Party seems to be losing to the Democratic Party" and that he "hope that Mongolia is going to make great progress towards democracy, justice and prosperity." On 30 June the Mongolian People's Party and eight smaller parties called for a new election with manual hand counting throughout every constituency in the country. MPP Secretary Yangug Sodbaatar said that the EVMs "violated the constitution. We are husdemanding the traditional system of counting votes by hand in every election constituency across the whole country to end this confusion that the population has about the voting machines and automated systems." However, the Democratic Party did not sign a petition to call for a new election, backing the automated system. As a result of the election, the Democratic Party became the majority at the parliament. The Democratic Party formed a coalition government with Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and Civil Will-Green Party in August 2012. The Mongolian People's Party became the opposition at the parliament.

References

{{Mongolian elections Parliamentary elections in Mongolia

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...