Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat

Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat, born in 1942, president of Mongolia (1990-1997). Ochirbat was born in the district of Oygon in Dzavhan Province and was educated at the Soviet Institute of Mining. He began working in the government’s ministry of industry in 1966 and achieved the office of minister for fuel, power, industry, and geology 10 years later. In 1985 he became Mongolia’s minister of foreign economic relations and supply. He was also a member of the Central Committee of Mongolia’s Communist party, called the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which was the country’s only legal party until 1990. In March 1990 the People’s Great Hural, Mongolia’s national assembly, elected Ochirbat as chairman of the Presidium (leading organ in Mongolia’s government), thus making him head of state.

In May 1990 the People’s Great Hural amended the Mongolian constitution to institute a presidential system of government and allow for opposition political parties. In September the MPRP-controlled assembly elected Ochirbat president of Mongolia. In 1991 a committee working on the constitution decreed that all government officers drop their party affiliations; however, Ochirbat maintained close links with the MPRP.

Under Ochirbat’s leadership, Mongolia was one of the first former one-party Communist countries to begin experimenting with economic reforms. The short-term result of the reforms was high unemployment and an increase in poverty, which led voters to reelect the MPRP in the country’s 1992 legislative elections. After the elections, Ochirbat’s relationship with the MPRP deteriorated and he was passed over as the party’s nominee for president. He then became affiliated with a coalition of opposition parties. In June 1993 Ochirbat was reelected president in Mongolia’s first direct presidential elections, beating the MPRP candidate with about 60 percent of the vote. As part of his reelection campaign, Ochirbat had vowed to continue his economic reforms, placing himself in direct opposition to the MPRP-controlled assembly.

Voters signaled their support for the continuing economic reforms by electing a majority of pro-reform candidates in parliamentary elections held in 1996. However, continued inflation and increasing unemployment tempered enthusiasm for the rapid pace of reform advocated by Ochirbat. Ochirbat lost Mongolia’s 1997 presidential election to Natsagiin Bagabandi, who had campaigned on promises of slowing the pace of reform and increasing social services.