Today (2023.05.03), D. Amarbayasgalan, the Minister of Mongolia and Head of the Cabinet Secretariat has submitted to the Chairman of the State Great Hural G. Zandanshatar the draft amendment to the Constitution of Mongolia.

The Resolution No. 54 of 2022 of the State Great Hural of Mongolia has assigned the Government of Mongolia, "to develop an amendment draft to the constitution of Mongolia and submit to the State Great Hural of Mongolia by reviewing and revising, within the framework of ensuring the check and balance of legislative and executive powers, the number of members of the State Great Hural, who represent the people at the highest state authority, and to determine the principle of the progressive election system of the State Great Hural by the Constitution of Mongolia, in connection with the Resolutions 01 and 02 of the year 2022 of the Constitutional Court of Mongolia.

In addition, D. Amarbayasgalan, the Head of the Cabinet Secretariat noted that the amendment draft has been developed in accordance with the stipulation of the Resolution 34 of 2022 of the State Great Hural of Mongolia that defines as “the scope of the survey of public opinion in order to ensure public participation and transparency in the issue of amendments to the Constitution of Mongolia” and to introduce a mixed election system and to increase the number of mandates to represent voters.

The amendment draft to the Constitution of Mongolia includes the following issues as; In 1991-1992, when the Constitution of Mongolia was discussed and adopted, the number of members of the State Great Hural was calculated to represent an average of 27,000 citizens based on the total population at that time, and thus it was enacted to have 76 members. Today, one member represents an average of 44,700 citizens. Provided that the number of citizens represented by one member has almost doubled, reducing the representative capacity of the parliament. In the case of parliaments with fewer members, there are risks such as legislation being approved by the votes of fewer members, power being concentrated in a single member, an input of inappropriate external influence, and weakening of control over the implementation of the laws.

In many other countries with parliamentary governance, the parliament has an average of no less that 150 members, which is effective in ensuring the distribution of legislative and executive powers and controls. Therefore, in order to improve the parliament's ability to represent citizens, the number of members of the State Great Hural will be increased to 152 in line with the population number.

The use of the majoritarian election system alone has created negative aspects such as the loss of citizens’ votes, the interests of the constituencies being placed higher than the national interests, and providing preferences to those who are known to the public and have financial resources. The use of the proportional method in the electoral system has advantages such as lesser loss of citizens votes, equal representation of social groups, and to nurture political parties with policies. Therefore, the Article 1 of the section twenty-one of the Constitution of Mongolia should be amended as to have an election system that reflects the advantages of both majoritarian and proportional methods, and to elect 50% of the total members of the State Great Hural by majoritarian and 50% by proportional methods.

With the approval of the draft amendments to the Constitution of Mongolia, the parliamentary governance, which guarantees Mongolia's independence and national security, will be improved by strengthening the capacity of the parliament to represent the people and the quality of control in the implementation of laws. The amendment initiators of the draft say that by clearly specifying the electoral system in the Constitution of Mongolia, the electoral system of the State Great Hural of Mongolia will be stable, the parties will compete fairly in the elections, it will be understandable to citizens, and the voting rights of citizens abroad will be guaranteed.

Teams consisting of representatives of the Cabinet Secretariat and the working group members, scientists, and researchers to draft amendments to the Constitution of Mongolia presented the draft to the citizens and held 22 hearings in 21 aimags and 9 districts of the capital which have gathered about 6000 citizens participating physically in the hearings, and collected more than 33,900 votes casted on more than 5,000 ballot papers. In addition, the draft was submitted to political parties and civil society organizations for collection of their opinions.