The Speaker’s council had moved Thursday’s failed sitting to Monday and Friday’s to Tuesday, so the week opened on the item left over from the last one. Prime Minister N. Uchral was to present the release of Amarsaikhan, whom he removed on 16 September, and the appointment of G. Temuulen in his place, and the new minister was to take his oath. By ikon.mn’s count at 16:42 Ulaanbaatar time, 58 members had registered, 15 were on assignment or leave and 53 had not registered. By 20:30 neither ikon.mn’s politics index nor Montsame’s carried a report of an opening.
Ikon.mn names the 16 members of the MPP group who had not registered, Oyun-Erdene, Amarbayasgalan and Amarsaikhan among them. From the National Coalition it lists N. Nomtoibayar, a deputy prime minister, and 3 colleagues as skipping the sitting, with 2 members of the Civil Will-Green Party.
The arithmetic is short. The MPP holds 68 of the 126 seats and a sitting opens at 64. On Thursday 44 of the 68 registered and the house reached 52; on Monday it reached 58. Without the 16 the party can bring 52 of its own at most, and the other 12 have to come from its coalition partners or the opposition.
The Democratic Party, with 42 seats, set its terms at midday. Its group leader, O. Tsogtgerel, said the MPP “alone has 64” seats, and 80 with its coalition partners, and can form the quorum of every sitting by itself; the parliament’s attendance sheet of 17 September gives the MPP 68. “If the MPP is united internally, the question of the government’s resignation does not arise,” he said. “Only they have the power to dismiss their government.” The minority will take part once the majority has formed its quorum, he said, and it wants Uchral to put a confidence motion next to the budget.
Without the 16 the party can bring 52 of its own at most, and the other 12 have to come from its coalition partners or the opposition.
One post is the price of the quorum. The justice and home affairs ministry runs the police, the internal troops, the border service and court enforcement, shuud.mn noted on Monday. One of the 16 held it until 16 September, and Uchral removed him 2 days after the prisons chief accused him in public over appointments given to his driver’s relatives. The nominee, Temuulen, has sat on the boards of Erdenes MGL and Oyu Tolgoi, served as deputy mining minister, and chaired parliament’s budget committee and then its security and foreign policy committee. On the agenda his appointment is a presentation by the prime minister followed by an oath, and both need a chamber that opens.
Behind that item sit the ones with money in them. The rewrite of the 2026 budget has passed 2 readings and needs a third; the pension rise dated 1 November is inside it, funded by the coal company’s 1.5 trillion tugrik dividend. The amendment that strikes 2 indicators from the fiscal rule needs the same floor, and so does the 2027 draft, written to the amended rule at a 2% deficit.
There is a precedent from this spring. On 26 March Eguur reported that Oyun-Erdene, Amarbayasgalan, Kh. Bulgantuya and Amarsaikhan had not been seen at plenary sittings since the autumn, that state business had stalled, and that the MPP group’s 68 seats were enough if 64 members turned up. A day later gogo.mn reported that G. Zandanshatar had handed his resignation to the party’s Leadership Council with the plenary idle for 2 weeks. On 30 March 107 members sat, and 88 of them made Uchral prime minister.
Tuesday brings the next test. The sitting carried over from Friday has the same item first. Tsogtgerel has named the exits: the majority fills its own benches, or the prime minister asks the chamber for its confidence. Each sitting lost moves the budget’s third reading closer to the 1 November date it is meant to pay for.