Parliament in Mongolia

Abstract

After 70 years as a one‐party state with a Soviet‐style legislature, Mongolia held its first ever multi‐party elections in 1990. The country's fourth constitution adopted in 1992 provides for a single‐chamber assembly, the Great Khural, with 76 members elected for a four‐year term. The new constitution opened the way for legislative and market reform, but the general elections in 1992 were won by the ex‐communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the reform drive slackened. In the 1996 elections the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 50 seats and the reform drive was restarted, but after a mid‐term cabinet change in April 1998 the DA lost the initiative. Amidst MPRP boycotts of the Great Khural and protracted tussles over interpretation of the constitutional roles of the government and president, the second DA cabinet was defeated on a vote of confidence in July and four months later the issues were still unresolved.