2023 Mongol Constitutional Referendum
| 2023 Mongol Constitutional Referendum | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Do you support the proposed changes to the Constitution of the Mongol Uls, entitled "A Constitution for the Future"? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Mongol Uls | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 28, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Yes
No
A constitutional referendum was held on 28 December 2023 throughout the Mongol Uls. Voters were asked for their position on a set of constitutional reforms proposed by the Orda government.
The proposed changes were rejected by an extremely narrow margin of 50.49% to 49.51%. Following the release of the results, Prime Minister Bataariin Orda, who had championed the amendments as his flagship goal, announced his resignation, and was succeeded by Deputy Prime Minister Sherig Toka.
Proposed Changes
The Orda government defined its five proposals as "democracy, accountability, human rights, non-discrimination, and secularism".
- The Kurultai will be divided into two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of the Clans. The 66-member Chamber of Deputies will be entirely elected, and will be endowed with the exclusive rights to propose legislation, invest the Prime Minister and cabinet, and to pass budgets and no-confidence motions. The 34-member Chamber of the Clans will be composed of the 33 clan representatives and the Bogd Gegeen, and will have a solely advisory role. It will be permitted to reject Chamber of Deputies bills, but the Chamber of Deputies may pass the bill anyway by voting for it again with an absolute majority.
- If at least 5% of all citizens sign a petition calling for the removal of the Prime Minister, a referendum on their removal will be held. If such a referendum succeeds, the Prime Minister will be compelled to resign.
- The following (additional) rights will be guaranteed: prohibition of the death penalty, torture, enforced disappearance, slavery, human trafficking and exile, right to truth, justice, memory and reparation, right to non-discrimination, right to progressive autonomy of minors, right to universal accessibility, respect for neurodiversity, right to a decent old age, right to care for the environment, right labor participation and strike, recognition of domestic work, right to decent housing, collective right to the national territory, right to food sovereignty, right to water and sanitation, right to energy, right to sport, and right to a dignified death.
- Extremism and ethnic-based hate speech will be restricted. No formal group or political party that advocates for extremist or hateful policies will be allowed to access public resources, including political party funding, tax exemptions, and ballot access. Hate speech will be considered a valid and just grounds for dismissal from one's occupation. Advocacy for a specific economic or societal model will not be considered extremism or hate speech.
- Tibetan Buddhism will lose its official status as the State Religion of the Mongol Uls. The Bogd Gegeen will be retitled from his former, religious title to the secular title of "Khagan". After the death of the Khagan, a new Khagan will be elected by the Kurultai.
Positions
Left-wing and progressive groups promoted the amendments as the path towards a fully representative democracy. Right-wing and regionalist groups opposed the proposal, with conservatives objecting to several guaranteed rights as excessive and pandering to a "woke" base. Political analysts, commenting on the opposition or neutrality of more progressive regionalists such as the Gangs Seng Ge and Islamic Modernist Party, pointed out that in a bicameral system, regional parties would be deprived of their "kingmaker" role in investiture votes, which they have used to extract concessions.
| Position | Parties |
|---|---|
| Yes | Greater Mongolia Movement Central Asian People's Party |
| Neutral | Islamic Modernist Party |
| Boycott | Kok Bayraq |
| No | Gurkani Clerical Alliance Mongolia Rise Gangs Seng Ge |