Ulaanbaatar
President’s two veto provisions on Administrative, Territorial Units Law accepted
Politics
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On December 24, 2020, the State Great Khural, Mongolian parliament approved the Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and their Governance. On January 22, 2021, President of Mongolia Kh.Battulga placed a line-item veto on a total of 27 articles and provisions of the Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and their Governance and another two articles and provisions of the accompanying amendments to the Budget Law.
As introduced by U.Shijir, Chief of Staff of the Office of the President of Mongolia, an article in the revised law, which rules that a governor can be dismissed by Prime Minister or a governor of a higher level for failure to fulfil their responsibilities, will enable Prime Minister to directly remove governors of aimags and districts who were elected through local elections from their offices.
“That is to say, this article infringes upon the citizens’ right to vote in the local council elections and gives the power of altering the results of local elections by dismissing governors and imposing disciplinary penalties at Prime Minister’s disposal.”
At its January 27 meeting, the parliamentary standing committee on Justice backed the President’s veto on the law’s articles 56.5.1 and 56.8 and overrode the line-item veto on remaining articles and provisions.
The plenary session of the State Great Khural voted and supported by a majority the standing committee’s decision to accept the President’s veto on following two articles.
The article 56.5.1. reads “Representatives of the Citizens’ Representatives’ Khurals, and political parties and coalitions in the Citizens’ Representatives’ Khurals of aimags, capital city and districts as well as participants in the general meetings of citizens (khurals) can alone or as a team nominate a candidate who meets the criteria set in the articles 56.3 and 56.4 of this law as governor. Higher level governor and Prime Minister can nominate a candidate who meets requirements set in the articles 56.3 and 56.4 of this law to the Khural of respective units.
The article 56.8 states that another candidate can be nominated by the Khural in compliance with the article 56.5 in case the appointment is refused as per the article 56.7.
