Mongolia’s constitution requires the dissolution of the government if half or more of the PM’s cabinet resigns. Thus, when the MPRP members of the cabinet resigned, it effectively forced Elbegdorj out, who, frankly, was not able to be effective leading a 50/50 split in the cabinet anyway. The fact that the MPRP wants to retake the Prime Ministership is certainly no secret. Granted, Elbegdorj may be Prime Minister, but everyone pretty well understands who really runs the country: President Enkhbayar.

Certainly the MPRP is very smooth and smart, and they know exactly what they are doing. Elbegdorj’s chances of remaining in power are slim to none. The MPRP may have trouble getting one more member of parliament to side with them, but it may not matter – the democratic coalition is so fractured that they cannot put up effective resistance anyway.

As for corruption and the other issues, there may be a lot of triggers (mining rights, profits, pensioners issues, public transpoprtation, economy, etc) but the bottom line is this is a power struggle for the future of the nation. The MPRP has been a spoiler in the democratic government for 2 years – no secret – but it’s not like the dems have proven themselves effective and strong leaders anyway.

I don’t even think that the protesters necessarily support the old government – the parties are actually not that different. Not long ago, one of the movements behind yesterday’s demonstrations said that things in Mongolia can’t get any better with the current system anyway. I thought it’s a protest against the party’s egoism rather than against its power grab.

What people appear to be upset about is that the resignation of the MPRP ministers seems to be the first step in an attempt to remove the current prime minister and replace him with one of their own members. After the election, neither party could form a government and had to form a grand coalition. I don’t know much about the corruption story, but people have been concerned for a while.