9 Standing Committee members refuse to vote openly on ACA chief’s dismissal

With a majority of
its members refusing to vote openly, the Standing Committee on Justice meeting yesterday
did not discuss the issue of the dismissal of the Chief of the Anti-Corruption
Authority (ACA) and his deputy. It will now be discussed tomorrow by
Parliament. The committee had last week voted to reject the
Prosecutor-General’s request for the dismissal of the ACA chief but there was
criticism that its secret voting violated rules of Parliament. This is why
yesterday’s meeting was called, but 9 of the 14 members present still refused
to vote openly.

The head of the committee, B.Bat-Erdene, later told media that he did not agree
with the criticism of the secret voting as his priority was an early settlement
of the dispute. His position now was that the earlier expressed opposition of
the committee to the dismissal remained valid. The committee had discussed the
issue three times before the parliamentary recess, and the members felt the ACA
chief could continue in his position.

He said the special monitoring sub-council was yet to submit its report to the
committee on whether the ACA chief had violated any law.