By Marissa J. Smith
Following the removal (and detention) of the deputy governor of Ulaanbaatar, and now the removal of the governor of Ulaanbaatar in the context of corruption allegations, the nomination of the new governor of Ulaanbaatar has been announced, and there is so far one candidate in the news. He has been officially nominated by the Citizens’ Representative Council of Ulaanbaatar and, in accordance with the 1992 Constitution, now only must be confirmed by the Prime Minister.
His name is B. Purevdagva. As reported by Mongolian media he is 36 years old and holds a political science degree from the National University of Mongolia, and is currently the Secretary General of the Mongolian People’s Party. Purevdagva also has a facebook account, dormant since fall of 2024, showcasing involvement both with the Citizen’s Representative Council of Ulaanbaatar (2020-2024) and the Mongolian People’s Party’s Social Democratic Youth Organization (of which he is currently president).
In short, Purevdagva’s profile maps very closely with former Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene’s and current Prime Minister Uchral’s (and not former Prime Minister Zandanshatar’s “revenge of the 70s” profile, nor with that of Kh. Nyambaatar, whom Purevdagva is set to replace).
As I laid out in my peer-reviewed article on the Mongolian People’s Party and the role of governors in 2020, Mongolian governors (including the so-called “mayor” of Ulaanbaatar, as the position has often been, sometimes misleadingly, styled in English) are, under the 1992 Constitution, nominated by the local Citizen’s Representative Council and appointed by the Prime Minister, i.e. not popularly elected (similar to has also been the case in Russia since the mid-2000s). My paper focused on Erdenet, and the role of the national government in appointing provincial governors has long been obvious. For Ulaanbaatar, however, city politics have been carried out relatively independently in recent years and included high profile clashes. This is why the nomination of Purevdagva is highly significant, as it demonstrates a move on the part of the MPP and the MPP-controlled national government to bring the Ulaanbaatar city government fully under its control (if only, perhaps, in appearance) in the months leading up to the 2027 Presidential election.
While the rationale given for the removal of the deputy governor and governor have been given as specific, unglamorous though not insignificant acts of corruption (the provision of contracts for the controversial Tuul highway and the governance of meat reserves), the rationale for the appointment of the new governor, Purevdagva, is the same, and at the same grand scale as was that for Prime Minister Uchral — business and megaprojects.