Perfect combination

Todays second photo exposes a glimpse of Mongolian innovation and creativeness. Two very typical Mongolian products joined together in perfect harmony. A vodka bottle and a ger. Well there is everything you ever wanted but did not know that you could get... If you look very carefully beneath the words "Mongolian Ger" you will see what almost certaily was the first caravan in history, belonging to the greatest Monglian of them all; Chinggis Khan.

What's next? Maybe airagcans in the shape of a horse? What I know of Mongolia is that there seems to be a lot of thinking going on during the long and cold winter nights... Today we for instance spotted a fantastic Giacometti-like sculpture in bronze or copper of a camel pulling a big-wheeled wagon. At the extremely good price of 114 000 tugrigs. Unfortunately we did not take o photo of it...

Elbegdorj new president in Mongolia

Yesterday Tsakhigiin Elbegdorj claimed that he had won the Presidential Election 2009 in Mongolia in front of his enthusiastic followers in front of Government House, in Ulaanbaatar. A little bit later his opponent, President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, admitted that he had been defeated. Later in the evening followers and members of Mongolian National Democratic Party (MNDP) celebrated in the Sukhbaatar Square, firing off exensive amounts of fireworks. Oh yes, it is Elbegdorj in the photo, but he is hard to spot thanks to all the journalist and cameramen. But that's only of the negative consequences brougth along with celebrity.

Elbegdorj's campaign promised the Mongolian people change and to deal with corruption (does anybody feel the spirit of Barack Obama here). Seemingly the Mongolians put faith in those promises. One commentator said that the Mongolians probably did choose the lesser bad out of two evils. Another one, most probably a cynic, commented by saying that: "- Of course the Mongolians had to let Elbegdorj win: -Who knows what he was going to burn down otherwise?" The cynic wants to remain anonymous, though!

Nevertheless, Elbegdorj held his speech in his moment of triumph. And a question that comes to mind is: What can he do? The Mongolian Presidency is largely ceremonial and the powers of the president by and large negative, which means that he has the power to veto decisions that the Mongolian Parliament supports with less than two thirds majority. As the present government has such a support there is seemingly no problem. But if the part of the coalition government that are MNDP MP:s defect from the government, thus bringing it beneath that critical point, then Elbegdorj has the powers to veto in principle all decisions made by the government. That was in principle what former president Bagabandi did between 1997 and 2000 during the rule of the Democratic Alliance, from 1996 to 2000. This destructive policy forced change of no less than four Prime Miniters, of which Elbegdorj was the last one. The point is what is going on his mind now? Is he keen on vengeance? Or can he forgive? Are his fellow MP:s ready to leave the coalition government?

If the last thing is going to happen Mongolia will be difficult to govern for the next three years. And talk about dealing with change and combatting corruption might just be empty rhetoric and the Mongolian people might become very dissapointed. So lets hope that Elbegdorj is going to let bygones be bygones, and turn out to be a cooperative president. Or if he does not, lets hope that the MNDP stays in the coalition government.

The Day after the Mongolian Presidential Election 2009

As we woke up today it seems as Mongolia might have a new president. That is what Ts. Elbegdorj thinks himself as he took out a group of followers on the Sukhbaatar Square to celebrate beneath the Chingiis Khan statue. Elbegdorj seemed confident yesterday as he trew his vote in his home constituency Sukhbaatar's 3rd Khoroo. The media coverage was terrific, up to the point where it became impossible for ordinary Mongolians to vote thanks to the hordes of media people.

"- You could not see the voters because of all the journalists, cameramen and foreign election observers." A Mongolian classic á neuvo!

Our little observation team visited seven constituencies, of which five where located in Ulaanbaatar and two in Zuunmod, in Tuv aimag. Two of the visited constituencies where in ger-districts. This year the focus was on consequences of the registration of voters, the dealing with voter cards and identity cards, increasing security at possible expense of voter secrecy, and finally the vote count.

We found some disturbing findings. The problem with voter and ID-cards had been addressed by scanning them through ultraviolet light. Initially the voters had their voter and ID cards marked after voting in order to stop from voting twice. This measure was sensible and would have worked if it had been used everywhere, but it was not. Of the seven constituencies we visited it was used in three. And if it is not used everywhere it does increase the trust citizens have in the election process.

Furthermore, the shielding of the voters as the cast their votes has improved lately in is mostly not a problem, but still we found one constiuency where the voters had to turn their backs out exposed, thus making it possible for someone to see how they actually voted. Directly addressed the chairman of the election constituency said that this was done in order to avoid cheating and voting twice. This is an old argument, but is it still a bad one where the security of process is secured at the expense of the voter secrecy; a cornerstone of modern democracy.

In another constituency there was a mirror wall behind the voters, which actually had the same effect. Directly addressed the election committee chairperson said that it was to avoid cheating and voting twice. In this constituency the problem of violating voter secrecy could have been easily avoided by moving the voter screens out from wall, approximately one meter, increasing the distance from the wall to 2.5 meters, then it would have been impossible see what the voter did in detail, but possible in the voters overall movement.

Still the General Election Committee has come up with the idea of altering the places of the candidates, which makes difficult or impossible to easily spot what voter is doing.

The vote count we observed was a mess. It took the staff four hours to start the count, and when we left after seven hours they were still not finished. It was an election with two candidates, how difficult can that be? We saw no direct violations on the Election Law though, even of many manoeuvres looked od.

Landet av kött

Trädgårdstomten kollar idag in de mongoliska köttdiskarna. Här har han fastnat för ett praktexemplar på State Department Store i Ulaanbaatar. Se hur det mongoliska köttet formligen flödar ut ur köttdisken. Eller som min gode vän Ganjuurjav Bat-Erdene uttryckte det när en mig närstående svensk försökte beställa fisk på en mongolisk restaurang: "- Det där, det kan du äta hemma. Nu är du i Mongoliet och här äter vi kött!"

Election in progress

Last night the election campaigns of the candidates of the Mongolian Presidential Election was terminated at midnight. Now one day without campaigning waits, which is like living in a limbo for the professional political scientist.

Yesgterday we had a short briefing at the Office of Foreign Affairs and Trade by the General Election Committee and its Chairman S. Luvsanjav, and afterwards that I was personally interviewed by a TV-channel and on the air at 21.00. It is a little bit strange to see yourself on a TV-screen and realise that this is not your ordinary vacation movie. Even stranger is the Mongolian voice over, coming in after your first three words...

We made some interviews yesterday with people occupied in the two candidates campaigns. The interviewee from the MNDP (Mongolian National Democratic Party) stressed that it is important to secure that the election process is operated in a fair manner. Especially the vote counting process. The campaigning had been more active, intense and competitive than the previous presidential elections held in Mongolia (1993, 1997, 2001 and 2005). He thought the MNDP's cnadidate Elbegdorj had preformed better than he had expected and almost appeared as presidential in his appearance. He was confident that Elbegdorj had a good chance winning the presidency.

The interviewee from the MPRP (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party) stressed that the accusations from their opponents of election fraud was close to the absurd. He had heard stories that sounded like fairy tales. He agreed with the MNDP interviewee that this campaign had been more intense and competitive than the previous ones. He thought that the election was going to be a tight one and with his experiences from earlier election his forecast was that his candidate would win with 5 to 6 percents margin.

An anecdote in this context is that yesterdays issue of UB Post had an article boosting that Mongolia finally had its chance to have its first democratic president, if Ts. Elbegdorj is elected. This is a very interesting notion as in 1993 Ochirbat was elected, in what is considered as free and fair democratic elections, and furthermore that he changed sides from the MPRP to the democratic opposition. In 1997 and 2001 Bagabandi was elected in democratic elections and finally Enkhbayar was elected in democratic elections 2005. Therefore it would be interesting to know in what respect Elbegdorj is more democratic than the others.

It might be as a Mongolian told me: "- Some have the word democratic in their party name but that does not make them more democratic..."

One of the Mongolian election myths:

During a previous election a vote count occured in a constitutiency in the middle of nowhere. One of the election-workers was in conspiracy with a candidate and when they had their tea-break, he had put in sleeping pills into the tea, and while the rest of election-workers were sleeping he managed to calculate the result according to the preferences of his conspirator...

It would have been interesting to know how he explained that everybody fell asleep and miracuously the vote count was finished as they woke...

Mongolian Presidential Election Debate

Yesterday evening the candidates in the Mongolian Presidential Election held their final debate. The debate went on for one and a half hour and the candidates were presented with 60 possible question which the moderator drew randomly from a box. The questions were put as suggestions of ordinary people and then chosen, refrased and edited.

Mongolian politicians have a rather special style. They talk using a rather low voice and seems to argue, not using emotions or outbursts. They seem to spread a sort of calm confidence to their audience. It is considered as bad behaviour to go outside this code of conduct. Yesterday's debate showed two politicians who rarely went outside this code.

Ts. Elbegdorj of the Democratic Party, once stepped outside this, as he addressed the events after the parlamentary election 2008. He stressed that he could not forsee the consequences of his speech held directly before the outburst of the rioting, which led to the burning down of the MPRP headquarter. Then he accused the authorities for not pressing charges against anyone for the deaths of five people during the riots. He also thouht it was odd that no one claimed damages on their cars that wére bunt during the riots...

Enkhbayar was probably breefed about this possible opportunity by his election strategists, and immediately took his chance. He said that of course there had been made mistakes, but no one knows the exact consequences of his actions in a state chaos. You simply have to do what you think is best in the situation. Which meant that he had to call for a state of emergency to stop the riots and limit the damages as much as possible. And he stressed that after the arrests of rioters, he immediately saw to that women and children among the arrested was released.

The tactics were simple and effecient, as Elbegdorj was trying to explain away his guilt by accusing others, while Enkhbayar played the role of the constructive one, the one who was trying to make everything alright.

Seen as a whole the debate seemed to expose two archetypes; Elbegdorj, the underdog who is striking from a seemingly impossible position (despite the fact that he actually had the lead in the last opinion poll); and Enkhbayar, the statesman, who most probably went on some course in rethoric and seemed relaxed and while Elbegdorj was arguing, both relaxed and content. On Monday we will know the outcome.

Mongolian Presidential Election 2009

On May 24 there is a presidential election in the Mongolian Republic. The opponents are the present President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and the Mongolian National Democratic Party's Tsakhia Elbegdorj. Both candidates has been Prime Ministers of Mongolia. Elbegdorj has been Prime Minister twice.

According to the latest opinion poll Elbegdorj leads with less than one percent, so we are in for an exciting event on Sunday. The so called black propaganda i slowly spreading throughout Mongolia. It is a smearing campaign that aims at make the Mongolian electorate to recognize who they are dealing with.

For the Elbegdorj campaign it is a matter of bringing upp issues as where did the rest of the money that was destined for Russia in the repayment of the Mongolian debt to Russia go, when Enkhbayar was Prime Minister. And what of the Putin visit; does it mean that Enkhbayar wants to extend the Presidential powers and Putinize Mongolia?

For the Enkhbayar campaign it is a matter of making the Mongolians remember the misery they experienced during Elbegdorj's brief moments in office. And perhaps tell the Mongolians how happy Elbegdorj is to be as it is for the Presidency he is running, as it is highly unlikely that he will be in conflict with himself! Or remind the Mongolians who actually succeeded of arousing the rioters who burned down the MPRP headquarter along the Peace Avenue last summer...

The excitement is rising...