Extraordinary session of Mongolia's parliament opens

ULAN BATOR, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The extraordinary session of Mongolia's State Great Khural, the Country's Parliament, opened here on Monday to review issues like revisions of taxation and mining laws.

"Our Country is now experiencing poverty and debt crisis. So, we all need to strengthen our unity in order to create a bright future of the Country and ensure the economic security," Gombojav Zandanshatar, speaker of the Mongolian Parliament, told lawmakers during the opening ceremony of the extraordinary session.

"When we strengthen our unity and solidarity, we will overcome and solve any problem. I hope that we will be able to successfully discuss and approve all issues which have been planned to discuss during the extraordinary session of the Parliament," he added.

During the extraordinary session, which will run until March 29, lawmakers in Mongolia's unicameral Parliament are expected to discuss several issues, including draft revisions to taxation law and minerals law of the Country, and appointment of the head of the Country's top anti-corruption body.

The extraordinary session came after Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga submitted an official letter to Zandanshatar on Feb. 20 to call an extraordinary session of the Parliament.

"Autumn session of the Mongolian Parliament closed on Feb. 2, after the Parliament failed to discuss the majority of the 23 originally scheduled draft bills and resolutions during the fall session of 2018 due to the halt in the functions of the Parliament for over 40 days, caused by disagreement between the chairman of the Parliament and lawmakers," Battulga said in the letter.

"Thus, I am submitting the proposal on summoning an extraordinary session of the Parliament before March 1 in order to recompense for the times wasted and take urgent steps towards immediate resolution of the pending issues that our Country and people face," Battulga said.

More than half of the lawmakers in the 76-seat Parliament, most of them belonging to the ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP), have boycotted plenary sessions and meetings of standing committees of the Parliament for more than 40 days, demanding then Parliament speaker Miyegombo Enkhbold's resignation over alleged conflicts of interest.

Audio recordings made public last year indicated that some officials of the MPP, including Enkhbold, allegedly used their government positions as a tool to run in the Parliamentary election in 2016.

Enkhbold was removed from his post by the majority of the Parliament in an ad hoc meeting on Jan. 29, and the former head of the cabinet secretariat Zandanshatar replaced him.