2012 Mongolian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Mongolia on 28 June 2012 to elect 76 members of the State Great Khural.^[1] Also held during the parliamentary elections was the Ulaanbaatar city council election, the first time both were held at the same time.

For the first time, the election used vote counting machines under new parliamentary election laws to make the election fair.

A new parliamentary election law introduced the status of domestic election observers who are nominated by civil society organisations. Political parties had to announce 48 candidates for constituency seats and 28 candidates for proportional allocation.^[2][3] Among the changes was also a quota of 20% of seats reserved for women.^[4]

It was the first Mongolian election to be held using a mixed parallel system, combining plurality block voting and proportional representation.^[5]

On 24 May the Democratic Party (DP) and Mongolian People's Party (MPP) announced their candidates for the election. A new party that participated was Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party which was established in 2010 by Nambaryn Enkhbayar.

Prior to January, the DP was a part of the grand coalition in government with the MPP, but later withdrew to focus on the campaign.^[6]

544 candidates were officially registered by the General Election Commission for the election,^[7] of whom 26 were independents and 518 were running from the following 11 political parties and 2 coalitions:^[8][9]

A large share of the posters were for individual candidates, though showing party logos, which were perceived as being aimed at voters in specific constituencies. By contrast, advertising on television was much broader and much more focused on the parties.

Corruption is a big problem, because of corruption, because of bad governance I think most of the emerging societies are failing and failed. We [don't] want to repeat that.

A spate of mining concessions to foreign companies has led to an influx of money into the country. This was also followed by accusations of corruption and a lack of accountability over the political leadership for squandering the country's natural resources and at least tacitly tolerating the mistreatment of Mongolian workers at mines operated by foreign companies. All political parties campaigned against corruption before the election. Mining and Energy Minister Dashdorjiin Zorigt said that "the only way out of this situation is to have more growth that is more just." According to the opinion polling firm, Sumati Luvsandendev, 90% of Mongolians believe that politicians benefit from some form of "special arrangements" over mining concessions to foreign companies. Rapper Tugsjargalyn Munkh-Erdene, also known as "Big Gee," partook in campaigning against corruption.^[11] including a controversial video clip against the alleged exploitation by ethnic Chinese.^[12] As a result of public pressure, there was a speculation of tightening restrictions for investment in the mining sector after the election.^[13]

The MPRP campaigned on a platform of "resource nationalism." Reuters suggested its participation in government could impact the mining sector, including the Tavan Tolgoi coal project, which the MPRP wants controlled by Mongolians.^[6] Other issues included variations by the parties on how to use the windfall from mining concessions most efficiently, including pensions, infrastructure and other subsidies for local industries. The DP expressed it was best placed to help the poor and unemployed, while calling the MPP held to the elite^[14] and foreign mining interests.^[15]

The Sant Maral Foundation and analysts had suggested that the Democratic Party would get a small plurality over the Mongolian People's Party, though neither party would get a majority.^[14]

The polling stations were open from 7:00 to 20:00.^[16] Voting took place using electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the first time. The voting machines were set up by the Canadian company Dominion Voting Systems^[14][16] to report results immediately to the General Election Committee rather than any kind of tabulation by the local election officials. Of the 1,840,824 eligible voters, 67% turned out to vote.^[6] There were 544 candidates, of which 174 were women.^[4]

Upon voting, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said "Today, we Mongolians face an important time to make a historic choice to address Mongolia's development and democracy."^[14]

The victory of two Mongolian People's Party candidates in the Constituency 10 was annulled due to breaches of electoral law, and the two Democratic candidates were elected instead. One candidate in each Constituency 22 and 26 did not receive the required 28% of the vote to be elected, repolling was held on 21 November 2012 and on 14 April 2013, respectively.^[17]

Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj pointed out he was led to believe that all parties had so far accepted the result thus a coalition is likely to be formed in August. He then added that "the Mongolian People's Party seems to be losing to the Democratic Party" and that he "hope[s] that Mongolia is going to make great progress towards democracy, justice and prosperity."^[20]

On 30 June the Mongolian People's Party and eight smaller parties called for a new election with manual hand counting throughout every constituency in the country. MPP Secretary Yangug Sodbaatar said that the EVMs "violated the constitution. We are [thus] demanding the traditional system of counting votes by hand in every election constituency across the whole country to end this confusion that the population has about the voting machines and automated systems." However, the Democratic Party did not sign a petition to call for a new election, backing the automated system.^[21]

As a result of the election, the Democratic Party became the majority at the parliament. The Democratic Party formed a coalition government with the Justice Coalition and Civil Will-Green Party in August 2012. The Mongolian People's Party became the opposition at the parliament.