The demand for the Prime Minister`s resignation submitted by the opposition party, MPP, during a plenary session meeting on April 12th  was re-discussed and rejected with 66.9 percent by parliamentarians Thursday, April 25th. Only 23 of 69 parliamentarians who attended the plenary session voted in favour of the resignation of Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag. The majority of Parliament pressed the button against the notion, supporting the Prime Minister to remain in his post.

Before the poll on the Prime Minister`s resignation, Norov Altankhuyag gave an explanation behind the reasons of the resignation demand. MPP demanded the Prime Minister`s resignation pointing to several issues including the number of state staff being increased  since the reformist government was formed,  the closing down of television channels and his relative`s daughter winning a Tavantolgoi tender allowing them to run a 17.7 billion MNT project. MPP also claimed that the Prime Minister has a conflict of interest because his neice, G.Uyanga, is the wife of the Deputy Chief of the Cabinet Office of the Government and an Erdenes Tavantolgoi Board member, G.Denzen.

The Prime Minister however denied these claims explaining “MPP issued one reason being that the number of state staff had increased, but according to official data the number was decreased by 384.

They also claimed that the television channel closed down. But the Government never issued such a decision, and never will. There are no grounds to believe that I, Altankhuyag helped his relative`s daughter win a Tavantolgoi tender. I have no idea about this tender. You should understand that I was not personally involved.

I would like to say that you can insult me however it is not appropriate to involve my relatives. G.Denzen was appointed as the Deputy Chief of the Cabinet Office of the Government since the Government was first formed. He is now in charge of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department. During this period he faced much pressure because he could reveal the numerous tax scams involving the Civil Aviation Authority, the General Department of National Taxation and the State Bank. He has been in a relationship with my relative`s sister for half a year. However I did not appoint my relative to the post.”