The thaw that began in the second half of the 1980s in relations between Beijing and Moscow had repercussions on the international position of Mongolia, linked to the USSR since its birth in 1924. The gradual withdrawal, between 1987 and 1992, of the Soviet troops stationed in Mongolia favored a progressive normalization of relations between the latter and China, while, on the internal level, a process of cautious political and economic liberalization was also recorded in Mongolia This opening led to a reconsideration of national history and a re-evaluation of the figure of Genghiz Khān, as well as a greater opening towards the Buddhist tradition. However, even after the abolition of the leading role of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and the introduction of a parliamentary and multi-party system, as envisaged by the new Constitution of January 1992, the Revolutionary Party effectively maintained political hegemony.
According to localcollegeexplorer, the political elections of June 1992 attributed to the Revolutionary Party, benefiting from the division of the constituencies and the majority electoral system, 70 of the 76 seats in the new single-chamber Parliament, despite the good success of the opposition, which had obtained 40 % of the votes compared to 57 % went to the Revolutionary Party.
The opposition’s demand for a more radical political and economic reform was also endorsed by the head of state P. Ocirbat, who repeatedly came into conflict, in the following months, with the executive headed by P. Jasray, a member of the Revolutionary Party, formerly vice president of the Council of Ministers in the late 1980s. Strengthened by the popularity obtained in the battle for the democratization of the political system and supported by the opposition forces, in the first direct presidential elections (held in June 1993), Ocirbat defeated the candidate of the Revolutionary Party, winning the 57, 8% of votes. Coalized in the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition forces (the National Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party) finally won the political elections of June 1996 (on that occasion the number of colleges increased from 26 to 76) and, with 46, 7 % of the vote, were awarded 50 seats against the 26 obtained by the revolutionary Party with 40, 5 % of the votes.
The new government of the Democratic Alliance, led by Mongolia Enhsayhan, embarked on a broad and radical program of economic reform, including drastic cuts in public spending, the near-total abolition of customs duties and the launch, in 1997, of a extended privatization plan. The liberalization of energy prices was followed by a strong increase in inflation and an overall deterioration in the living conditions of the population, which had already deteriorated following the economic crisis that had hit the country since 1989. The widespread discontent with the government’s economic policy favored, in the presidential elections of May 1997, the candidate of the Revolutionary Party, N. Bagabandi, who won with 60, 8 % of the votes, while Ocirbat, supported the Democratic Alliance, obtained the 29, 8 % of the votes.
In April 1998, following the resignation of Mongolia Enhsayhan, T. Elbegdory, president of the National Democratic Party, was appointed prime minister, who in turn was forced to leave office in July. In the following months the repeated vetoes placed by the President of the Republic against the prime minister candidates proposed by the majority generated a political paralysis which was only overcome in December 1998, when the president finally accepted the candidacy of J. Narantsatsralt. In July 1999 Narantsatsralt resigned and was replaced in August by R. Amarjargal, Minister of Foreign Affairs from April to December 1998.
On the international level, the strong economic dependence on Moscow pushed Mongolia, even after the dissolution of the USSR, to a policy of alliance with the Russian Federation, and in January 1993 the two countries signed a twenty-year treaty of friendship and cooperation. In April 1994 a similar treaty was signed with Beijing. In addition, Mongolia worked to intensify its international relations, in particular with Japan and the United States, both members of the Mongolia Assistance Group (which also includes the Russian Federation and China, as well as financial bodies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank), which has been involved since the early 1990s in providing financial aid to the country.
