ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Mongolians took to the streets on Thursday to protest against corruption in the top echelons of politics, braving temperatures that dropped below minus 20 degrees Celsius in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Protesters attend a demonstration to demand the resignation of Mongolia's parliamentary speaker Enkhbold Miyegombo, at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia December 27, 2018. REUTERS/B. Rentsendorj
The protesters - organizers estimated there were 25,000 of them - focused their anger on Mongolia’s parliamentary speaker, Enkhbold Miyegombo, and the two main ruling parties, the Mongolian People’s Party and the Democratic Party.
There has been rising anger over a long-running corruption case related to allegations that Enkhbold and other political figures had looked to raise 60 billion tugrik ($23 million) by selling off government positions.
A cross-party group of politicians who are boycotting the parliament’s plenary sessions has signed a letter demanding Enkhbold’s resignation.
The group, the Mongolian People’s Union, opposes the two main parties, together know by the abbreviation MANAN.
“We will not allow the situation where the MANAN faction gets all the wealth and resources, while people ... remain with nothing,” member of parliament Ayursaikhan Tumurbaatar told media.
“The air pollution, people’s poverty, wealth inequality all started with Enkhbold, since he was the mayor of Ulaanbaatar city,” he said.
Mongolia, for years a satellite of the Soviet Union, transitioned to parliamentary democracy in 1990.
At the Thursday protest, people held up placards with messages such as “We Demand Enkhbold Resign”.
Protester Dejid Avirmed, 61, told Reuters that people were fed up that in a mineral-rich, democratic country like Mongolia many still lived in poverty.
“Mongolians are very patient, but now we lose our patience,” she told Reuters at the protest in the central square in front of parliament.
“Enkhbold should resign. A shame on him that he makes this many people protest in this mid-winter cold.”
Thursday’s regular session of parliament was delayed, the seventh time it has been, because of the boycott by the members demanding Enkhbold’s resignation.
The last scheduled parliament session for 2018 is due on Friday.
“Parliament members should solve the problem not by appealing to protests, but by coming to the parliament session hall. This is the law,” said Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren, deputy speaker of parliament, media reported.
Hanzar on December 27th, 2018 at 16:00 UTC »
corrupted politicians.... bane of the world.
theevilengineer on December 27th, 2018 at 15:14 UTC »
Pretty sure no one in history would feel comfortable with 20k+ angry Mongolians coming for you.
codydodd on December 27th, 2018 at 14:24 UTC »
Mongolia has had a rocky, but steady period of democratization following the fall of the USSR. Many of these young democracies easily fall victim to the temptation to retain cronyism, and pummel down their protesters. Mongolia does not have a lot of experience with 25k+ protests, so how the government reacts will be telling about the type of democracy it is trying to become. Keeping in mind other countries in the region, against many odds, transitioned into democracy (South Korea), so it should be interesting.
Is there any Mongolians here that can shed greater light on this, and how the government is likely to respond?