In the ninth parliamentary elections held in Mongolia since its 1990 democratic revolution, the ruling Mongolian People’s Party narrowly retained its majority, winning 68 of the enlarged parliament’s 126 seats, marking a strategic shift from their previous supermajority. Though the election saw little divergence in party policies on crucial issues and did not spark significant changes in Mongolia’s political culture, the outcome led to increased political diversity, with the Democratic Party and the Civil Will-Green Party making notable gains. L Oyun-Erdene has been reelected as prime minister by a grand coalition of the Mongolian People’s Party, the Democratic Party and HUN.
Mongolia held its ninth parliamentary election since its 1990 democratic revolution on 28 June 2024, giving the ruling Mongolian People’s Party a narrow majority in the newly-enlarged parliament with 68 of 126 seats. Despite voter frustration with politics and governance, discontent was not strong enough to bring other parties to power.
Democracies around the world are facing the challenge of democratic backsliding. While there are many debates about how and why this is occurring, the trend has sharpened the focus on democratic processes globally. Mongolia stands out, sandwiched between Russia and China — two countries often seen as undermining democracy.
The election saw parliament expand from 76 to 126 seats, of which 78 were newly created, large multi-member constituencies — also known as plurality block voting — and 48 were elected via proportional representation. Majoritarian constituency candidates were subject to a minimum of 30 per cent female nominations, while party lists for proportional representation followed a ‘zipper’ structure, alternating between male and female candidates.
Some of the strategic motivations behind these changes for the governing Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) stem from the challenges they faced with their supermajority of 62 of 76 seats in the previous parliament. This dominance made it difficult to enforce party discipline on MPs, who often pursued individual agendas. It pushed the opposition out of parliament, forcing them to express their dissent in the streets, and left the MPP entirely accountable for developments in the country.
The OSCE Election Observation mission’s preliminary findings described the election as ‘well-administered’ but note that competitiveness was hampered by than uneven playing field.
The campaign was unusually quiet, with not much energy expended in campaign efforts. These were hampered by the very large majoritarian constituencies that posed a significant challenge for candidates, making it difficult to travel across constituencies and engage voters directly in a campaign lasting just over two weeks.
The Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) achieved its goal of maintaining power while avoiding a supermajority. Their strategy of tilting the playing field seems to have paid off, with 68 of the incoming 126 MPs belonging to the MPP caucus. But parliament looks quite different in other ways. In addition to the long-time opposition Democratic Party (DP) surging to 42 seats, the HUN Party increased its presence from one to eight MPs.
The National Coalition and the Civil Will–Green Party, each with four seats, are newcomers to this parliament, though the latter had representation from 2008–2012. The gender-alternating zipper system boosted women’s representation to 25 per cent, but most female MPs were elected via party lists and only three won re-election directly.
The MPP gained some attention for its party list nominations, which included several young and unexpected faces. This move appeared to counter the ‘throw the rascals out’ sentiment among opposition forces and frustrated voters. In contrast, candidate lists for the other parties were dominated by party stalwarts and veterans, with the DP’s seeming particularly stale.
However, ideological or policy differences between parties were minimal. Other than general opposition or support, no issue galvanised conversations. Concerning major issues affecting the electorate — mining, health and environmental strategy — there was no substantial divergence between the parties in their policy prescriptions. Even candidates with notably populist histories maintained a relatively subdued campaign approach.
Given turnout dropped only slightly, from 73.6 per cent in the 2020 parliamentary election to 69.3 per cent, frustration with party politics did not lead to widespread disengagement. Instead, voter discontent was predominantly channelled into supporting the DP. This result likely reflects the power of the DP’s brand driving its success, rather than any personnel or policy alternatives it may have offered. This same staying power may also explain the revival of the Civil Will–Green Party, which did not provide any new issues in its platform, lacked notable candidates and did not campaign actively outside of Ulaanbaatar.
Additionally, the increased diversity of representation in parliament has not yet sparked a major shift in political culture, with greater issue-orientation and accountability still yet to be seen in Mongolian politics.
The election saw Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene re-appointed as prime minister. He has appointed a cabinet including DP and HUN members, entering into a ‘grand coalition’ government. From the MPP’s perspective, the coalition will mean shared accountability, while the DP and HUN’s motivation for entering into a coalition appear to centre on the ministerial appointments that come with that agreement. While some ministers will pursue individual agendas, broadly, the coalition government’s policies can be expected to follow the last several years’ trajectory.
Julian Dierkes is Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. He was recently awarded the Mongolian government’s Friendship Medal and is one of the principal authors of the Mongolia Focus blog.