Earlier today I posted an article on President Elbegdorj’s comments vis-à-vis Nambar Enkhbayar’s trial and emphasized the importance of the international community’s role in pressuring the Mongolian government to let Enkhbayar and his son stand in the upcoming elections.
There are three further points that I would like to raise about Elbegdorj’s statement which demonstrate that his comments are not only inaccurate, but selective and hugely misleading.
President Elbegdorj’s statement makes much of the alleged independence of the Electoral Committee that rejected both Enkhbayar and his son’s candidacy. It does not mention that the cause of the decision of the Electoral Committee was pressure from the Prosecutor, who is a government appointee, and by the Court itself which is charged with trying Enkhbayar. The final decision came as a result of “clarifications” from both these two bodies – a clear breach of the principle of separation of powers and the presumption of innocence.
The statement says that the cause of Enkhbayar not being able to stand in the upcoming elections is “due to the pending criminal allegations against him.” What Elbegdorj fails to mention is that neither the Constitution nor the law bar people that are standing trial from contesting elections as long as they have not yet been convicted. With Enkhbayar’s trial not set to start until next week, it is likely that there will not be a resolution before the June 28th election, not to mention the presumption of innocence.
And as to the statement that Enkhbayar has had unfettered access to lawyers, Enkhbayar has still not received all the evidence against him which he is entitled to see. None of these documents were delivered to him before the end of May and between May 31st and June 3rd he was delivered 30 (out of 50) bundles of evidence.
When considering the above information, it is quite clear that Enkhbayar’s corruption trial and subsequent ban from standing in the parliamentary election is politically motivated. As the most significant political challenge to President Elbegdorj, he has every reason to want to keep Enkhbayar in the courtroom and off the ballot.
