Mongolia’s Prime Minister resigns following protests over alleged mishandling of mother, baby

Khurelsukh Ukhnaa (Montsame)

LAANBAATAR: Mongolia’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to accept the resignation of Prime Minister of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa.

Local news agency Montsame said that 95.2 percent of the lawmakers present at the parliament voted in favor of accepting the resignation.

Under Mongolia’s law, the prime minister’s resignation the entire cabinet, formed in July 2020, will also be stepping down.

At the parliament session on Thursday, MP S.Byambatsogt said that this is the first time when the country’s Prime Minister resigns since Mongolia adopted its first democratic Constitution in 1992.

The ruling Mongolian People’s Party is expected to convene on Friday to name candidates for the country’s 32^nd Prime Minister and next cabinet members.

Protests amid freezing temperatures (Twitter)

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Ya.Sodbaatar and Minister of Health T.Munkhsaikhan submitted their resignation to the Prime Minister following public pressure and protests over the mishandling of a relocation of a COVID-19 patient and her newborn baby from maternity hospital to the National Center for Communicable Diseases.

According to local media, a video appearing to show a mother being hastily discharged from a local maternity hospital in a bathrobe because she had tested positive for the coronavirus was widely circulated online. Demonstrators flocked to parliament to protest her treatment.

Protests amid freezing temperatures (Twitter)

Announcing his resignation, Prime Minister Khurelsukh expressed regret for the situation and made an apology on behalf of himself and ‘those officials who failed their responsibility’.

“The government of Mongolia and the State Emergency Commission had been mobilizing all efforts throughout the period defined by the pandemic, with timely measures of border closures and implementing heightened emergency state. There is no death from COVID-19 yet.”

Mongolia, a landlocked country between Russia and China with a population of 3.3 million, has so far avoided mass coronavirus outbreaks. It has reported fewer than 1,600 infections since March, with 526 active cases as of Thursday.