Domestic Mongolian politics is increasingly conducted through social media, which allows Mongolian expatriates to help shape domestic public opinion from afar. As a result, Government and political parties are seeking out more connections to these communities.[1] However, the inclusion of Mongolian citizens abroad in political decision making, such as through remote or absentee voting in parliamentary elections, presents challenges. Is the proposed “One State, One Constituency” electoral system the answer?
Previous Parliamentary Elections
Advocates within the Mongolian diaspora started lobbying for the inclusion of expatriates in Mongolia’s elections back in the early 2000s. The violent “June 1st” riots that followed the announcement of the 2008 legislative election results moved Mongolia’s political and economic powerholders toward more inclusiveness.[2]
The Mongolian diaspora was allowed to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time in 2012. Expatriates cast their ballots in a “mixed parallel” electoral system, meaning their votes applied to only 28 of the 76 seats in Parliament and were distributed to political parties in proportional representation. Expatriates were excluded from voting for the remaining 48 seats, which were designated solely to the 26 constituencies inside the country, and candidates were elected in each constituency by a first-past-the-post system.
For the 2016 elections, the electoral system was changed instead to a majoritarian one, in which the legislators were elected from 76 single-mandate constituencies.[3] Consequently, Mongolians abroad were no longer able to take part in parliamentary elections.[4]
The 2020 Parliamentary Elections
In June this year, the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) proposed an amendment for nationwide one-constituency elections. They claimed that this so-called “One State, One Constituency” proposal might allow for the participation of expatriates in the 2020 legislative elections. This prompted discussion amongst the Mongolian diaspora in what is today institutionalised under the framework of the Committee of Mongolians Abroad (CoMA).
In order to gain more information, CoMA issued a survey to Mongolian academics abroad, asking them to fill out a questionnaire regarding the basic requirements and procedures of external voting in their host countries. The survey results suggested that a national, single-constituency system is not necessary for the inclusion of expatriates in elections. According to the data collected from Belgium, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, expatriate voters were able to be included in their countries’ parliamentary elections regardless of the number and size of the constituencies.
Opinion
It is fair to say that the inclusion of expatriates in parliamentary elections would be rather simpler in a system of nationwide, one-constituency voting. The assignment of voters to a constituency in a multiple-constituencies system and the distribution and return of ballots to the assigned constituencies would require comparatively more complex administration and logistics.
Questions such as whether a nationwide single-constituency system would promote or suppress democratic representation of the people in Parliament? Or whether it would offer a fairer balance between conflicting regional interests (such as land use for herding or mining) by making MPs more independent? These are questions remain open for debate.
Here we are considering whether the “One Country, One Constituency” proposal is necessary to address the administrative and logistical challenges of including expatriate Mongolians in parliamentary elections. And from this point of view the argument in favor of such a nationwide system is unconvincing.
In reality, past voter turn-out of expatriates was so low that their participation was practically irrelevant to nationwide election results. In those elections, turn-out was less than 5,000 out of 80,000 eligible voters living outside Mongolia.[5] Such low turn-out means that expatriates have little effect on elections—at least in terms of ballot count. Their real power is in shaping public opinion through social media leading up to elections. Therefore, the “One Country, One Constituency” argument seems less about expanding democratic enfranchisement, and more about harnessing the political support of influential Mongolian expatriates on Facebook and Twitter.
[1] According to International Organisation for Migration, an estimated 130,000 Mongolians lived abroad in 2016. A considerable number for a country with a population of only three million.
[2] Paul Guerin, Lessons learned from electoral support in Mongolia 2008-2012, p. 4
[3] OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report, p. 6
[4] It should be noted that this discussion involves participation in parliamentary elections. For presidential elections, Mongolians expatriates have been able to participate in both the 2013 and 2017 contests.
[5] 2012 Parliamentary elections: 2,279; 2013 Presidential election: 4,242; 2017 Presidential election: 4,767
July 2019
Dr. Uyanga Delger, attorney-at-law
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