Ulaanbaatar
Parliament approves President’s partial veto on Law on State Great Khural
Politics
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At its session held on August 20, the State Great Khural, the parliament of Mongolia, discussed and resolved to approve President of Mongolia Battulga’s partial veto on the Law on State Great Khural, with 79.9 percent of the members in attendance voting in favor of the veto.
On May 26, 2020, President Battulga put a partial veto on article 38.2 of the latest revised version of the Law on State Great Khural, which states “President shall draft a bill within the limits of their powers stated in article 33 of the Constitution”, claiming that the article is incompatible with the concepts of recent amendments to the Constitution of Mongolia and not achievable unless principles to elect the president and regulations following it are changed.
As introduced by U.Shijir, Head of the Office of President at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on State Structure on August 19, the article restricts the president to draft bills on the most critical internal and external issues facing the country as the head of the state and National Security Council.
Recent amendments to the Constitutions, which came into force on May 25, 2020, incorporate an article (26.1) that reads “The President, Members of the Parliament, and the Government shall exercise the right to draft a bill and the scope and limits of this right shall be determined by law” is one of the changes made to the Constitutions proposed by the President with a view to improve the governance system and distribution of powers as well as to avoid giving the power to President and Parliament members to draft bills on important matters, such as criminal code, or budget and tax laws, general directions for economic and social issues, that needs to be prepared by only professional organizations or relevant ministers.
Today’s parliamentary resolution to accept the president’s partial veto is effective immediately, from August 20.
