Late last year, the Executive Committee of the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) decided to dismiss Su.Batbold, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar from the post before his term ended in two years; as a result the capital has been without a mayor for over two months.

On 16 January, the Citizens’ Representative Khural (Council) of Ulaanbaatar elected an independent candidate, S.Munkhchuluun, to the post.  S.Munkhchuluun won 24 votes from 43 members in the second round of voting defeating S.Amarsaikhan who had been nominated by the Executive Committee of the MPP. However, U.Khurelsukh, Prime Minister of Mongolia chose not to approve him.

Subsequently, on 26 February, the Citizens’ Representative Khural of Ulaanbaatar held another election. This time, S.Amarsaikhan won 56.8 percent of the votes. Yesterday, S.Amarsaikhan officially took over responsibility for running Ulaanbaatar, after being approved by the Mongolian Prime Minister and officially being given the seal of the Mongolian capital.