PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN MONGOLIA (Mongols say: mordohyn hazgai meaning the manner in which one mounts a horse determines

the ride) This report is produced to present some facts and events to help understand the reasons behind post-election demonstrations and riots. An account of a witness whos been involved in this sector as team member on electoral system assessment, debates on election legislation working with Women for Social Progress/Voter Education Centre and election observer on ANFREL international observation mission in Thailand (12/2007) and Nepal (04/2008). The 2008 parliamentary elections in Mongolia held on June 29 ended in post-election demonstrations in Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan, Erdenet and Uvs aimag. Demonstrations in Ulaanbaatar entailed riots and violence outside MPRP Headquarters (former communist party) leading to declaration of state of emergency in the country. Violence outside the MPRP headquarters was initiated by sections of demonstrators, which separated from peaceful, initially spontaneus demonstrations at the Sukhbaatar Square. Small political party candidates and leaders led the peaceful demonstration on the Sukhbaatar Square parallel to the violent events taking place at the MPRP Headquarters, a few hundred meters away. PRE-ELECTION ENVIRONMENT: Parliamentary election was prepared and held under continuing criticism of implementability of the new Law on State Great Hural Election and constinutional debate around its legality as well as constinutionality of some of its provisions. The Speaker of Parliament Ts. Nyamdorj was found guilty of unconstitutional act of editing laws after final hearing and approval by SGH general sessions documented in the Judgment of the Constitutional Court #06 dated May 23, 20071. While Speaker Ts. Nyamdorj resigned, the SGH made no decision to restore the final SGH approved version of the Law on SGH Elecion and on December 27, 2007 delivered decision2 to conduct June 2008 parliamentary election under this unconstitutionally edited law. Unconstiuttional editing changes electoral system from enlarged electoral districts to enlarged multi-mandate electoral districts. Public discussion and debates around legality of the law and the illegally introduced block mandate electoral system continued throughout pre-election period. This law suits the two big parties, reducing chances of small parties and independent candidates to zero. Implementability of legal provisions of the Law on SGH Election was a topic of discussions and public debate since 2007. The Supreme Court finally issued its Interpretation #16 of Some Articles and Provisions of the Law SGH on March 31, 2008. This document provided legal interpretation on 47 provisions of 17 articles of the law.

1 2

Constitutional Court Judgment #06, May 23, 2007 Resolution of State Great Hural #98, December 27, 2007

One interpretation of the Supreme Court of Article 27.4.3 which stipulated candidate shall not be convicted was interpreted to mean has never been penalized (convicted) trigerred heated protests and negotiations between the two big political parties, which both apparently had among their top-tier leaders and candidates numbers of people who have been convicted of crime or penalized in the past, including MPRP Chairman S. Bayar. SGH pressured Constitutional Court to reject this interpretation of the Supreme Court. The General Election Commission (GEC) has conducted this election unable to ensure implementation of requirements set by legal provisions for: 1) final verified voter register; 2) appropriate procedures and preparation for (block mandate) election; 3) registration of independent candidates as per law; 4) the right of citizens residing outside Mongolia to vote and 5) ballot paper with security features (barcode not verified) - all evidencing existence of further issues with implementability of the law. Issues related to the status of chaos with citizen registration and voter lists became apparent early in March, when GEC posted the Register on its website for voters to check their status. Thousands of voters were not registered at all, while others were registered in 2-3 election subdistricts. However actions taken failed to remedy the situation and ensure transparency of election process. GEC replaced the Voter Register with a note advising voters to resolve their voter status issues with the local election committee, when those are established 15 days before election day. Civil Society Monitoring for Fair Election carried out an audit of the voter list in Election District #22 revealing the following: 15,411 voters registered at current residence addresses, 17,266 voters not found at registered addresses and 14,677 requiring update of their registration status (includes those not contacted due to lack of contact info). In addition to not producing and informing the public of a final verified voter register, GEC made decision not to deduct the number of citizen residing abroad from the total number of voters and printed ballot papers equal to the number of voters residing in Mongolia, those residing abroad but not allowed to vote and plus 10% contingency (1,664,642). This is seen as key irregularity source at this point along with unauthorized and legally unjustified decision by GEC to allow voters to vote without voter IDs, basing solely on residence address registration on their citizen IDs. The legal environment, planning and preparations for election administration debated, questioned and criticized by national and internaitonal experts and public is the underlying reason for lack of public confidence and trust in incumbent government, big political parties and MPRP dominated General Election Commission to hold free and fair election. CAMPAIGN PERIOD: All forms of vote-buying had already started taking place beginning January-February 2008. Complaints to the General Election Commission received a surprising response that the GEC cannot take any action before election is formally announced.

Monitoring by civil society organizations concluded that election campaign was dominated by MPRP and DP campaign materials, especially incumbent MPs running for office again (select documents in English are available on www.openforum.mn) Many cases of violation of provisions on election campaigning by incumbent MPs and ministers, extensive use of public resources as well as campaigining during cooling period were discussed, decisions by district election committees recommending sanction against candidates issued without however action taken by GEC. The multi-mandate expanded 26 election districts are 2-4 times larger and the campaign period is almost halved with what was allowed under the single mandate 76 district electoral system. This created an unfair condition for new party/coalition and independent candidates. While incumbent candidates have started campaigning early in the year, new and independent candidates had approximately three weeks to reach voters with their campaign. This larger size and shorter election period also had a negative impact on voter and election worker education. Independent candidates had to demonstrate outside GEC and protest through press against restrictive provisions making almost impossible for independents to register as candidate and begin campaining. Provisions for independent candidate eligibility and registration consist of maze of days, number of supporters and forms required to register (Article 29, 30.8, 40.1)3 in addition to requirements applicable to party/coalition candidates. Protests forced GEC disregard requirement to collect supporter signaures on a special GEC approved form, thus again not following the letter of the law. Independent candidates had much less time and opportunity to campaign compared to any other candidate. ELECTION PROCESS: Vote taking process started in an idillic fashion as usual, went fairly smoothely through the day until closing time. During the day Eagle TV and TM reported live from polling stations of irregularities: discovery and arrest of 58 new citizen IDs issued during vote taking at polling station.#11 in Sukhbaatar District4, including one issued to a deceased man; thousands of new voters appearing in all election districts registered at existing and non-existent addresses. At closing time irregularities were reported from polling stations in the capital city election districts and rural areas: 1) voters still queued at the time of closing and protesting refusal to take their vote; 2) large groups of voters rushing into polling stations between 9-10pm; 3) power outages at two polling stations in Bayangol District (UB) and rural polling stations at the time closing, reconciling ballot papers and preparing for counting; 4) election committee leadership reduced the number of party and candidate observers to one per party regardless of the number of candidates to observe vote counting; and 5) sending out party and candidate observers to take rest (only MPRP members in the committee staying behind with ballot boxes).

3 4

Law on SGH Election TM Channel live report, June 29, 2008, 9:50am

The first and by far the largest fraud opportunity was presented by General Election Commission decisions #1765 dated June 16 not to deduct the number of citizens residing outside Mongolia from the list of viters and #289 dated June 29, 2008 (attached)6 directing election committees to allow citizens to vote without voter ID and registration in the voter register, basing solely on residence regitration displayed on the citizen ID. Decision #289 applies to election districts of Darkhan-Uul, Orkhon aimags and 6 election districts of Ulaanbaatar. GEC decisions violate provisions of 27.1, 23.6 and 45.4 of the Law on SGH Election. As stated in MP B. Munhtuya, SGH SC Chairs letter7 these decisions were outside the mandate and authroity of GEC and seriously breach provisions of Article 20, 21.4, 25.16 of the Constitution of Mongolia. This decision increased the number of voters from 5,500 to 7,100 and from 1,500 to 3,000 at smaller polling stations. The number of voters per polling station, number votes to count and time required for this has presented more opportunity for fraud. The second opportunity for fraud was presented by procedures for vote taking and vote counting. Polling starts at 07am and closes at 10pm, with counting starting immediately after reconciliation of ballot papers and continuing until counting is completed. There is no provision, which allows alternate election committee members and party, candidate observers to meet the requirement of provisions 48.8 It is prohibited to open ballot box before closing time and to go on break during vote counting process8. In the past practice, under single mandate electoral system, vote taking and night time counting which continued for 38 hours was a vulnerability both in terms of election fraud as well as breach of Labour Law and human rights provisions9. The General Election Commission has not factored in the need to count 3-4 times more votes under the new block-mandate system in its new procedures. It only announced that election committee members, party and candidate observers will be expected to work 6070 hours without break. Many complained that they worked overtime for several days before election-day and continued on to vote taking and counting process. Many election committee members, party and candidate observers admit that they cannot be sure of what was taking place during vote counting, some refusing to sign committee reports and protocols. POST-ELECTION PROCESS: There are many issues again with legality and constitutionality of the actions taken by the state.

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GEC, Official Letter #176, June 16, 2008 GEC, Official Letter #289, June 29, 2008 7 SGH Standing Committee Chair B. Munhtuya, Official Letter #5/4469, July 3, 2008 8 Law on SGH Election, Article 48.8 9 UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 7.4

First and foremost issue raised by human rights watch organizations is that shooting at the crowd started without warning (July 1, Eagle TV live coverage) around 6pm right after MPRP Chairman S. Bayars press statement and without giving any opportunity to innocent demonstrators and standbyers to pull out. The Presidential Decree10 announcing a state of emergency breached Article 19.2 of the Constitution stipulating: "In case of state emergency or martial law, the human rights and freedoms defined by the Constitution and other laws shall be subject to limitation only by law. Such law shall not affect the right to life, freedom of opinion, conscience and religion, as well as the right not to be subjected to torture, inhumane and cruel treatment11. Freedom of information and expression was restricted by this decree to one single government-controlled MNTV. Human rights organizations established Human Rights under State of Emergency Monitoring and Protection Coalition, which reports12 of violation of all basic human rights, including the right not to be subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. The statement expresses concern over announcement of the state of emergency around midnight and beginning arrests and shooting regardless of the fact that at 12pm many people and especially those on the site may not be watching TV news. Mongolia never had civil unrests in its recent past and therefore there is no experience and knowledge among the population of what state of emergency means, especially that it could include shooting at moving objects with combat bullets, arrests and detention of those in the streets immediately after its announcement. The state (MPRP) has not made an attempt to warn its people, give opportunity to pull out and come to senses both in taking action immediately upon declaration of state of emergency and shooting at the crowd earlire in the evening. The population is still in a state of shock over closure of all TV stations but the government controlled MNTV, continuing arrests, threats, torture and inhumane treatment. Information is fully censored by MPRP. The only available TV channel transmits pieces prepared by MPRP aimed at identifying and arresting those who were involved in riots. 700 people were arrested, most of them young people and underage boys. Fabrication of facts and information went as far as using a retarded man (July 4th MNTV) in detention wearing a surprisingly clean Magnai hat, to state candidate O. Magnai paid him MNT 1 million (around US$858) to participate in the riot. Later the Association of Blind made a statement that this man has documented legal incapacity status and that he is being used to forge case against opposition candidates. Candidate O. Magnai was arrested on July 5th
10 11

Century News, #160 (2920) 2008.07.03 Constitution Of Mongolia, 1992, Article 19.2, page 9 12 HRSEMPC, Statement, July 6, 2008 (attached)

on charges of initiating civil unrest with proposed death penalty or 25 years of imprisonment. Candidate J. Batzandan, Chairman of Civic Movement Party, is arrested on same charges of initiating social unrest with already proposed death penalty or 25 years of imprisonment for engaging in acts leading to death of other individuals. S. Bayar, MPRP Chairman and incumbent PM, in his speech on July 5th and in press interviews called upon MPRP members and supporters to express themselves and among other things stated that those who failed to perform their duties well be penalized and those did well will be rewarded. Due to post-election riots and the state of emergency there is no formal information from the General Election Commission on the number of complaints and decisions related on complaints received before election-day; any information related to post-election complaints and their status. Under the circumstances it is not possible to obtain full and true information regarding election related complaints. No information is made available on the GEC website. On July 8th candidates L. Odonchimed (MPRP), Ts. Ganhuyag (CWP) and B. Tsogtgerel (New National Party) held a press-conference announcing publicly facts about election irregularities, inaction of GEC and demand for re-election in Election District #24. Below we provide a list of issues and complaints collected from small parties, candidates and press, which have been submitted to district election committees and GEC with little or no action taken. Due to incompleteness of information we will not make attempt to draw conclusions or analyze but rather list facts of complaints as is. Election District #7: Candidates M. Zorigt and M. Choidorj from Civil Will Party (parliamentary party led by incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Oyun) submitted complaints to GEC on irregularities in Election District #7 (Dornod aimag). Irregularities list: 1) inability of district election committee to reconcile number of unused ballot and plastic bags for sealing ballot papers; 2) discovery of 320 signed and stamped ballot papers and 404 undestroyed ballot papers (cut off upper right corner) in ballot boxes delivered to the District Election Committee; 3) counting votes on unsigned/unstamped ballots as valid; 4) at polling station #45 (Baga 3) the number of ballots with votes exceeded the number of voters registered; Election District Committee disregarding requirement to hold meetings in open and transparent manner with party and candidate observers present held a closed meeting on July 2nd from 11am through 03am (15 hours) the following day; 5) demand to receive a written response according to law was satisfied only in terms of a written form, with its content differing from that of delivered verbally and which was not signed by half of committee members, who protested the decision; 6) none of the above developments were documented in the EC protocols.

Election District #23 District Election Committee report to GEC lists the following challenges: 1) Voter Register and voter lists provided by GEC and National Centre of Citizen Registration Database (NCCRD) contains many redundancies, registers many citizens who do not live at listed addresses, did not eliminate open address registrations; 2) appointment of horoo (lowest administrative unit/local government) organizers in election committees by MPRP created difficulties in the work of election committees; 3) Distribution of new and fake (proven by Police Department) citizen IDs and change of residence address through election day created challenges. Under irregularities the Election District Committee listed: 1) At polling station #11 a total of 52 new citizen IDs were seized and checked revealing registration of citizens at addresses which do not exist, including ID issued to a deceased man; 2) Reports on attempts to buy members of election committee have not been confirmed, however S. Zorigtbaatar, member of election committee for polling station #2, reported attempt to buy him and the document has been sent to Anticorruption Agency. 3) Usual allegations regarding distribution of money, alcohol and tobacco have been checked and were necessary documents transferred to Police for further investigation. 4) Fake residence registration was reported from Polling Station #2. Voter B. Burnee came to the District Election Committee to present evidence of fake citizen ID, which was transferred to Police for further investigation. Sukhbaatar District Democratic Party complaint to the District Election Committee lists: 1) Horoo governors distributing citizen ID with fake addresses and registration data. 2) Ch. Handsuren, Chair of Polling Station #11, was caught distributing citizen IDs of which 60 were arrested with police assistance. 3) Huhuu, chair of Polling Station Committee #12 was caught damaging a valid citizen ID of citizen B. Uyanga as well as was drunk at the time of submitting final vote count report. 4) A minivan (HAA 63-49 license plate) transported voters from Nalaikh to vote at Polling Station #15 of Sukhbaatar District (UB). This event was videotaped and reported on TV. Election District #24 MPRP candidate, incumbent MP L. Odonchimed in his complaint filed to Election District Committee list the following irregularities as justification for re-count13: 1). At polling station #14, in the process of recounting votes for L. Odonchimed 500 votes have been left uncounted. 2). At polling station #12 voter Mr. Sodmagnai found that someone had already voted in his stead. 3). At polling stations #11, 20 around 21.40 hours some 500 voters broke in and voted without presenting any identification documents.
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MP L. Odonchimed Official Letter, #7/4461, July 1, 2008

Civil Will Party complaint on irregularities in Election District #2414 states that as result of GEC press conference statement made at the Chamber of Commerce Hall that: a) citizens will be allowed to vote without voter IDs based on residence registration at the given locality; b) voters shall vote for the number of mandate allotted to the district disregarding Supreme Court interpretation that voters shall be allowed to vote for any number of candidates not to exceed the number of mandates ; c) issuance of voter mandates during vote-taking are a serious breach of 9.3, 23.1 and 37.11.12 of the Law on SGH Election resulting in the following irregularities as justification for re-count: 1). At polling stations ##11, 16, 17, 18 around 300-350 persons in each polling station voted between 21-22 hours people without voter IDs. This was organized and transported by bus and minivans. 2). Citizen and voter IDs issued on election-day. 3) Irregularities in vote counting. 4) Harassment of election committee non-MPRP members, party and candidate observers by committee chairs and secretaries. At polling station #9, CWP observer Minjee was dismissed by committee secretary for evidencing that some voters with fake IDs were her neighbors. Democratic Party candidate R. Burmaa15 and Ts. Elbegdorj (DP Chairman) submitted a complaint to the Election District Committee listing below irregularities as justification for re-count: 1). In violation of provisions 23.1, 23.6 and 45.4 of the Law on SGH Election allowed voting at all polling station without voter IDs and residence registration in this district as well as issued fake residence registration. 2) Provision 48.1 stipulating that counting shall start at 22.oo hours and will continue without break, procedure for ensuring implementation of this provision and requirement to document counting process ob video were all violated. 3) Counting irregularities include: use of pencils and whiteout instead of blue ink pen at polling station #14; an observer was allowed to count votes at polling station #22; twelve ballot papers missing at polling station #8. 4). 66 votes not reconciled; 30 ballot papers are suspected to have been replaced and request for expert analysis of signatures not satisfied. 5). Provisions 46.4.8, 46.4.9 and 46.4.10 on creating environment for observers to observe vote taking and counting process has not been implemented. 6). Over 20 hours of counting process had negative impact on the ability of all involved in the counting process to perform with error. This is a list of irregularities reported by various parties in various election districts and is therefore far from showing the complete picture. But it does direct at several irregularities which could have had serious impact on the outcome of election results.

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CWP Official Letter #886, July 2, 2008 R. Burmaa, Complaint dated July 4, 2008 to GEC and District Election Committee

It is obvious that holding elections without a verified, open and transparently publicized voter register was a violation of the law. Decision to allow citizens to vote without voter ID, which are issued by the district of residence, is a clear violation of law. It is also obvious that not deducting the number of voters residing outside Mongolia (who were not allowed to vote this time, again in violation of the Law on SGH Election) and adding 10% contingency gave GEC and local election committees thousands of extra ballot papers. In order to make use of the above decision (or vice versa) fake citizen ID were printed and distributed throughout Ulaanbaatar, Erdenet and Darkhan election districts (8 election districts). Election committee members working for over 38 hours, party and candidate observers not allowed to observe meaningfully the counting process evidences that conditions for error and fraud-free counting were not secured. There is enough evidence that election process was not free of error and fraud, which would serve as justification for re-election. But opposition is careful about demanding reelection after the establishment of information control by MPRP and several days of brainwashing of the nation with falsified information about opposition parties and candidates initiating riot and looting, even the shooting.

SUKHGEREL, Dugersuren