Wednesday’s meeting of the Standing Committee on State Structure focused on the first reading of the draft law on parliamentary election. One proposal in the draft came in for extensive discussion. This calls for civil servants or those having to do with state owned enterprises to give up such jobs if they wish to seek election to Parliament. That would mean many wielding power would be off base for six months or so. Will MPs agree to such clipping of wings?

Some MPs, including Z.Enkhbold, D.Enkhbat and E.Munkh-Ochir, wanted money from the state budget to be used to print and distribute the action plan of all candidates. D.Lundeejantsan was very much against the idea. If, he said, the 17 registered political parties together nominated 1,000 candidates, the money needed to implement the proposal would be a huge amount. “A budgetary grant would mean picking the taxpayers’ pocket,” he said.

Enkhbold defended the suggestion by saying this was one way to reduce the influence of money in an election. “Basic state support to help every candidate knock on every family door would make the field level,” he said, adding that in any case, what parties spend are also ultimately money from the people and hence no different from that from the state budget. His argument received wide support, and Lundeejantsan found himself in a minority.

The members also discussed whether bribing voters should be termed a legal offense. There was also a suggestion to reward the person who would reveal the bribery act. This proposal would also be examined carefully at the next meeting.