Presidential elections were held in Mongolia on 26 June 2017. Incumbent presidentTsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, first elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, was constitutionally barred from running for a third term.[1]
In the second round, Battulga was narrowly elected with 50.61% of the valid votes, or 55% of the votes cast for a candidate, while Enkhbold received 44.85% of the votes cast. Battulga was officially inaugurated as the fifth president of Mongolia on 10 July 2017.[6]
Prior to the 2017 presidential election, the Erdenebat cabinet's decisions to increase seven types of taxes, cut social care, and extend the retirement age all faced public outcry. A range of public opinion surveys conducted before or during the election established that these decisions led to a disillusionment with the MPP.[8]
Electoral system
The President of Mongolia is elected using the two-round system.[10] Mongolian electoral law considers the blank votes casts in presidential elections as valid votes. The General Election Commission (GEC) thus includes blank votes in its calculations of the proportion of the vote won by each candidate; as a result, it is possible for no candidate to receive a majority of the vote in the second round. If this happens, the entire election is annulled and fresh elections would be held with new candidates.[11]
Candidates for the MPP presidential bid were selected from a party public survey on 2 May 2017. About 50,000 people participated in the sociological survey. The top five most favoured politicians — Miyeegombyn Enkhbold, Tsendiin Nyamdorj, Ölziisaikhany Enkhtüvshin, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, Badmaanyambuugiin Bat-Erdene — were proposed and discussed as potential primary candidates. During the party board meeting on 2 May, Enkhtüvshin, Khürelsükh and Bat-Erdene withdrew their names to support the party policy.[13]
Enkhbold and Nyamdorj ran for the MPP presidential nomination on 3 May 2017, during a party conference. Out of the 259 governing board members, Enkhbold received 85% of the total vote and was chosen as the MPP pick for the 2017 presidential election.[14] Nyamdorj was eliminated from the primary with 14.3%[15]
Erdeniin Bat-Üül, former mayor of Ulaanbaatar and key figure of the 1990 Democratic Revolution, did not register for the 3-4 May primary. Instead, he called upon fellow DP members to boycott the 2017 presidential election[19] to "prevent the MPP from once again stealing an election, illegally and unconstitutionally."[20]
The MPRP had originally selected former president Nambaryn Enkhbayar as its candidate at the MPRP's XVI party conference on 5 May.[21] However, the GEC refused to allow Enkhbayar to run as a candidate as he had an outstanding criminal record and had not spent the last five years in the country, having lived abroad from August 2013 until October 2014.[22] As a result, the party selected a non-MPRP member and former chairperson of the National Labour Party, Sainkhuugiin Ganbaatar, as its candidate on 16 May.[23] Prior on 6 May, Ganbaatar did not rule out the possibility of running as the MPRP candidate on a TV9 broadcast.[24] The party's sole MP, Oktyabriin Baasankhüü, opposed Ganbaatar's nomination and left the party.
The three candidates agreed to participate in a two-hour-long debate on the last day of campaigning.[27][28] The presidential debate was conducted and broadcast by the Mongolian National Broadcaster (MNB) on 24 June at 21:00 PM, four days before the election. Prior to the 2017 presidential debate, the MNB received the debate questions from the public via an online portal from 22 June 9:00 AM to 23 June 24:00 AM.[29]
Use of blank vote as strategic voting
With the election being the first time a second round was needed, it became apparent that the electoral law was imprecise on the rules of campaigning in between the two rounds. The lack of a clear rule was interpreted by the General Election Commission (GEC) as an interdiction on political campaign. Sainkhuugiin Ganbaatar, who narrowly missed the second round, began a "White Choice" (Mongolian: Цагаан сонголт) campaign calling to cast a blank vote, so as to have none of the remaining candidates reach the 50% threshold needed, leading to a new election.[30] During a press conference on 30 June, Ganbaatar stated that if new elections are held, the MPRP leadership will nominate new candidates.[31] While not a campaign for a candidate per se, this was nonetheless ruled by the GEC as an electoral campaign, and thus forbidden.
In the second round, 99,494 blank votes were gathered, totalling 8.24% of the total of valid votes, falling close to the intended result by a few thousand votes.[32] The share of blank votes rose by around 7% in the second round of voting.
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