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Situated between China and Russia, Mongolia's strategic location underscores the importance of a successful transition from communism to democracy. The International Republican Institute's (IRI) current programs in Mongolia focus primarily on working with government institutions and officials. IRI works with Mongolia's parliament, the State Great Hural (SGH) to increase effectiveness and accountability and to strengthen political processes.
Public Opinion Research
Public opinion research helps the government and political parties in their ability to recognize and understand the concerns of citizens. In the lead-up to the May 2005 presidential election, IRI conducted a poll providing the political parties with information identifying issues of importance to Mongolians. IRI helped the parties analyze and incorporate this information into their campaign strategies which honed in on the issues that concerned voters.
Prior to the 2004 parliamentary elections, IRI conducted a series of national public opinion polls to gauge voter sentiment and assist political parties in developing an understandable and clear campaign strategy. The results indicated that the opposition parties separately were not perceived as viable alternatives to the governing Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Thus, IRI worked with opposition Democratic, New Socialist Democratic and Civil Will-Republican parties to foster the creation of the Mongolian Democratic Coalition (MDC) that went on to gain a majority in the SGH.
Election Monitoring
Open and transparent elections are essential to democracy. In order to maintain and encourage high electoral standards in Mongolia, IRI trains poll watchers from all of the political parties. Poll watchers monitor voting at polling stations to ensure that rules and procedures are properly being followed. Their work leads to greater confidence in the electoral process and electoral results. Most recently, IRI trained party poll watchers observed the September 3, 2006 bi-election in Khuvsgal aimag (province).
For the May 2005 presidential elections, IRI trained thousands of poll watchers and distributed more than 8,000 election observation manuals. These efforts helped to ensure the credibility of Mongolia's presidential election results.
In Sukhbaatar aimag, IRI conducted poll watcher trainings for all political parties for the parliamentary, presidential and local elections. In this aimag, all three opposition parties united and developed a strategy to ensure all 40 polling stations were covered by opposition party polling agents.
As a result of IRI's trainings, poll watchers are well informed on their rights and responsibilities and are ensuring that irregularities on Election Day are reduced.
Governance Initiatives
Promoting legislative reforms to increase government transparency and effectiveness is a priority. IRI has partnered with the SGH to establish a joint working group of parliamentarians and other government officials to implement new parliamentary procedures and open legislative debate.
IRI's work with members has resulted in the passage of legislation establishing committees for the first time within the SGH. Another piece of legislation that deals with ethics rules was drafted with the help of IRI, and if passed, will implement ethics standards and requirements for government officials. The importance of IRI's work has been recognized by members.
"With IRI's cooperation, the State Great Hural has drafted and introduced key legislation that will make the State Great Hural more open, transparent and accountable to its citizens." -MP Damdin Demberel, Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
"IRI's parliament and MP training has been of great use to me and many of my colleagues in the State Great Hural. IRI's support over the years has played a huge role in the State Great Hural in becoming more open, transparent and responsive to the citizens of Mongolia." -MP Luimed Gansukh, Democratic Party.
Women's Initiatives
Women in Mongolia face a variety of obstacles to participating fully in the political process. While women have a higher literacy rate than men and are generally better educated, they are underrepresented in government and political leadership positions.
In April 2005, IRI hosted the Women's Partnership in Politics and Governance, a multiparty women's forum on democracy. The forum brought together prominent female leaders from across the country, as well as international representatives to help Mongolian women leaders develop long-term plans for increasing women's political and civic participation. After the forum, an independent network was established to plant the seeds of cooperation between women's organizations and encourage increased women's involvement at the local levels of government. IRI's current programming strengthens the relationships established during the forum through regional conferences and encouraging information sharing.
Parliamentarian Study Tour
Through a grant from the Institute for Representative Government (IRG), IRI hosted a delegation of six parliamentarians in September 2005 on a study tour focused on how U.S. governance systems operate at the federal, state and local levels.
The delegation met with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert and IRI board member and House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA). The delegation traveled to Denver, Colorado, where they met with Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and former members of the Colorado State Assembly. These meetings in Colorado focused on how state and local governance systems address transparency issues and environmental policies. Additionally, the delegation met with the staff of Rep. Bob Beauprez' (R-CO) district office to discuss how federal elected officials can provide constituent services.
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The 1996 success was soon overshadowed by volatility and unstable leadership. During the subsequent four-year period, Mongolia witnessed the resignation of four prime ministers, all of whom were forced to leave over corruption and scandal allegations. These set-backs did not dampen Mongolians' support for democracy, as transparent and open elections continued throughout the period and the political parties became more sophisticated.
