The meeting of the DP group in Parliament yesterday discussed amendments to the Parliament Law, according to its Head, Ch.Saikhanbileg. The 23 MPs who attended the meeting felt that both the earlier first-past-the-post method and the present system of 26 constituencies electing 76 MPs had flaws. They wanted the working group on the issue to continue exploring other options. 

The DP MPs felt whichever system is adopted must be one suited to Mongolian conditions. “There are many variations within the broadly-termed proportional and composite systems. The main principle should be that of ‘One voter-one vote’,” said Saikhanbileg.

The DP group set up a working group led by Kh.Temuujin to explore ways of reaching an agreement with the working group of the MPRP on the draft law initiated by him and rejected by the Standing Committee. The DP feels Temuujin’s draft has significant merits, even though it failed to get majority support. It wants to try again to include at least certain references in it in the MPRP-sponsored draft that has been approved.

The DP group favored a special regulation that would ensure that past mistakes are not repeated during elections. For example, the GEC could be given the power to settle certain problems without referring them to court organizations.

“There are cases of distributing money to get the support of voters. There are also cases of tampering with the ballots. The responsibility for addressing such cases must be clearly allocated. There are also proposals to improve the ballot counting procedures and introduce IT. The major issues in electoral reform are about election finances and the expense reports,” said Saikhanbileg. He added, “The political parties submit the expense reports a month after the election. People then cannot tell if they are true or not. The DP wants regular financial reports during the campaign.”