An interview with the
Head of the Center for Voters’ Education, Mrs. R.Burmaa

The Center of the
Voters’ Education touches on subjects relating to election fraud. What’s your
take on the new Election law?

Several renewals have been made in the new law. It’s
plausible that the regulation of responsibility has been improved through this
law. For instance, in the previous elections, voters’ name lists would be
tampered with, but specific regulation is put to use in this regard in the new
law. I should probably state an example of how the voters’ names were meddled
with in the past. In 2004, the Parliamentary as well as Citizens’
Representative Hural elections were held only 4 months apart. However, over
130,000 names of individuals who participated in the election were missing in
the list. By looking at this, the Parliament added that many voters’ name. on
the other hand, over 130,000 names were eliminated in the provincial election.
Number discrepancy increased to amount 236,000. In this regard, we conducted a
research on citizens’ registration and information.  For instance, only 1/3 of the names
registered at Selenge province were real individuals.

Where/which authority
compiled the list of voters? Is there a way to re-check recount the names in
the list?

The voters list is provided/compiled together by the
provincial/capital city Governor’s office, National Statistical Bureau and
Citizens’ Registration and Information Center. The list provided by these 3
organizations show a discrepancy ranging from 100,000-220,000. Let me give you
a specific number. A re-check was conducted in 2007 in Selenge, which included
92057 individuals, of which 30021 showed violation. 11983 had address
violation, 347 didn’t have national ID document, 22376 didn’t officially get
themselves transferred, and 3236 were dead but wasn’t eliminated from the
voters list. Also, in the capital city, a re-check involving 850,405
individuals was conducted. 73603 of them had ID document violation, 25274 had
address violation, 3289 didn’t have any ID to provide, 17519 didn’t get
themselves transferred and imprecise address 34962, double registration 7659,
1047 dead but didn’t get eliminated from the voters list. What can be concluded
from this is that the election was fraud, using so many names.

What is the number of
votes concerning win vs. loss?

In the 2000 election in Selenge Province, winners had only
54 votes more than the losing side. I mentioned before that there was 3236
non-eliminated dead. Thus, the main factor influencing election results is the
faulty list compiled. In the capital city, the difference is even lower. For
instance in the 2008 election, Khan-Uul had 5, Chingeltei 152, Bayangol 122,
Bayanzurkh 470 votes diference. Due to such a little difference, civil society
members established a NGO geared at monitoring the election, named, “Civil
society for fair election” network. Voters’ Education center also cooperated
with it. One of the network members, Philantrophy Dvelopment venter monitored
Bayanzurkh district starting in May27, 2008. In other words, the organization
re-checked the 47354 names provided by the General Election Committee. Result
of the checking showed 17266 of the names weren’t even registered at the voters
list. They also found out fraud on creating nonexistent streets, buildings.
Even one household was recorded as having 18 members living together. When they
go to the location, there’s no one there. Officially registered voters amounted
to a mere 15411. What can be concluded from here is that the real number of
voters is 1/3 of the names provided in the list.

Was this fraud and
discrepancy in numbers reported at the time to the appropriate organization?

In 2008, we informed the General Election Committee. But the
committee didn’t fix the problem, in fact it made it even worse.

How did it make the
situation worse?

Official letter was provided to the media from the General
Elction Committee stating that voters not included in the voters list can give
a vote. Because of that, over 48,000 individuals were added in half a day at
the capital city, Erdenet as well as Darkhan cities. Due to this unorganized
situation, citizens used fraudulent stickers and gave votes at several
different places. In Sukhbaatar district, Citizens’ Registration and
Information center staff themselves were caught using fake stickers on people’s
national ID. What is witnessed here is that the political power holding
organization used the public servants and conspired with the General Election
Committee and held seriously fraudulent election. 48,000 is enough to meddle
the election result. At the time, the General Election Committee was called at
court, which was proven guilty after 1 year. Actually re-election should have
been held in Chingeltei district and other districts where fraudulent election
was held. But since the court decision was made 1 year after the incident and since
Members of the Parliament had already sworn to office, the case was dismissed.
The Mongolian People’s Party awarded the Head of the General Election Committee
with a title as CEO of “Erdenet” Mining Corporation, instead of penalizing him.

The leverage for
conducting fair election was electronic ID. However, it got to be not able to
be used right before the election?

The Election Law states that the voters list is verified to
be accurate and that only the Citizens’ Registration and Information center would
compile and provide the voters list. In order to do so, all citizens were
rte-registered through a new registration process. Official photo, finger
print, signature and residential address were recorded and verified. And the
law states that the votes should be made using a smart ID using the information
saved electronically. Unfortunately, the Minister of Justice & Internal
Affairs, Mr. Ts. Nyamdorj, used excuses which prevented the use of electronic
ID’s in this election. However, holding a fair election is still possible if we
follow the law, double check the voters with their finger print, and have third
party monitoring team. In other words, because a pre-prepared third party
monitoring group would be working, it prevents changes in the voters list. If a
change is made, the offender shall be held responsible as it is considered a
criminal offense. Besides this, there used to be such a violation where the
votes were transferred from one person’s name to another’s. Because of this,
the election result was changed depending not on the people’s actual vote, but
on the preferences of the vote counters.

In this election, voters’
votes will be counted using an automatic machine. You were in the working group
which would test the machine.

The machine is independent of human interference and gives
out the vote result in a matter of minutes. Previously, vote counting was done
at night, now it will be conducted in the day time where monitoring team is
watching. There were a few flaws in testing the machine however. If a mark is
made on the voting sheet, the machine doesn’t recognize it. Fraud seekers could
mark the sheets so that those votes wouldn’t count. The law states invalidation
of the vote if extra markes are made on the voting sheet. Therefore, it’s
important to warn the citizens not to make such marks on the sheet. In order to
regulate the situation, the General Election Committee made faulty regulation,
which states that the voting sheets shall be checked for extra marks after the
voters have made their votes. This would result in an obvious disclosure of the
votes. Therefore, I hope the General Election Committee will withdraw this
regulation.

The new law will hold
citizens responsible. What’s your take on this?

Before, voters only had the right, now they have
responsibility as well. it’s a very good regulation. For example, if a party
member attempts to obtain votes in an illegal manner and the offense is
witnessed by a citizen, he/she will be rewarded for informing of the offense, by
providing the proof to the General Election Committee, which then will provide
the citizen ten times the amount promised by the offender. But voters must be
sure not to blame an innocent person. Therefore, we’re appealing to hold a fair
election with the help of the citizens. Also, the opportunity for NGO’s to
partake in and monitor the election for the first time. Also, due power/right
was granted to pre-trained staff who’d work at the election posts. Citizens
must not sell their votes. If such an attempt is observed, the offender will be
arrested for 7-14 days. During the previous elections, political parties
distribute news via the media blaming with contempt each other. This is also
regulated by the new law.

So, are you saying if
the law is implemented properly, the election will be held fairly?

Yes. But we cannot simply count on the belief that the law
is good and the public servants would take care of the election. Democracy is
defined not by the virtue of the people, but by that of good mechanism. In
other words, monitoring must be very well conducted both inside and outside. In
the capital city, there’s a high probability that many public servants are
reliant on the same political party. Some even are used to meddling with the
votes to have their party win the election because it’s that party which
appointed them at their job. First of all, they will be excluded from public
service and second, they will be penalized for committing a criminal offense.
The voters and citizens also need to be alert on such account.