Mongolia has just chosen its third prime minister in 10 months. He has his work cut out.
Mongolia has a new prime minister. Again
Mongolia’s parliament on Monday night elected Uchral Nyam-Osor (39) as the country’s third prime minister in less than a year following months of infighting within the governing Mongolian People’s Party (MPP).
A former digital development minister who won the leadership of the MPP in a landslide last November, Uchral faces formidable political and economic challenges.
He said he would prioritise ensuring Mongolians get a better deal from companies such as Rio Tinto that mine the country’s rich reserves of copper, gold, coal, lithium and other minerals.
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“A financial model will be developed and negotiations will continue,” he told legislators.
Mongolian politics have been in turmoil since weeks of youth-led demonstrations forced prime minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai out of office last June. The protests followed the emergence of social media posts showing a woman linked to the prime minister’s son flaunting lavish, unexplained gifts.
Oyun-Erdene’s successor, Zandanshatar Gombojav, survived an attempt by parliament to oust him last October, but he faced relentless challenges from within his party before he resigned last week.
Public protests have continued in recent months over everything from high prices, fuel shortages and air pollution to plans to build a giant highway to ease the notoriously gridlocked traffic in the capital Ulaanbaatar.
Situated between Russia to the north and China to the south, Mongolia is a vast country four times the size of Germany with just 3.5 million people, making it the most sparsely populated country in the world. Despite its mineral wealth, 27 per cent of Mongolia’s people live in poverty and the government wants a bigger share of royalties from the mining companies.
A communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union from 1921 until 1990, Mongolia has been a parliamentary democracy for the past 36 years. International monitors have consistently approved the country’s elections as free and fair but the political system has been dogged by corruption, much of it linked to the mining industry.
Mongolia is neutral and its constitution prohibits foreign militaries from transiting through its territory or basing forces there. Successive governments have performed a delicate balancing act between Russia as its main energy supplier, China as its biggest trading partner and western and Middle Eastern countries that are increasingly important sources of investment.
Recent years have seen Mongolia take on observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a political, economic and security organisation that includes China and Russia, and sign a temporary free trade agreement with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.
But Mongolia also became a founding member of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace this year and its forces continue to play an important role in United Nations peacekeeping missions.
Uchral enters office in a stronger position than Zandanshatar insofar as he enjoys the support of his party, winning its nomination for prime minister with 99.7 per cent of the vote, and he won the support of 88 out of 107 legislators in Monday’s parliamentary vote.
But despite an economy expected to grow by more than 5 per cent this year, Mongolians are discontented and increasingly sceptical about the government’s capacity to address the country’s biggest challenges.
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