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Topic Discussion II
Building Public Trust
Elections & Legislatures
Room 3
(18 of 23 pages)
Now to have credible institutions is not an easy thing because there are so many
difficulties, particularly the fact that the electors generally speaking, do not have a long democratic tradition
and do not know what they should expect from institutions and what to expect from the elected. They confuse the
elected with the social assistance and expect from these elected ones to solve their daily problems. They mix up
the role of the parliamentarian and the locally elected. Again, there are many problems, which I will not go into,
because they have been mentioned, like the use of more money, the electoral system.
But there is a point on which I would like to insist and make a recommendation on and that is the voting and method
of voting and elections like the one in my country where the majority, where one go -- and I think this is the
most anti-democratic one, because we have fourteen or fifteen candidates in every constituency and though he who
has the highest percentage, 15% or 20%, represents all the constituency. Whereas the 80% of the other votes are
not represented and represent zero. So I think we should think of together, and have recommendations on methods
of voting.
Again, this method is one, which is exclusive, and we notice that among the young and women, are excluded from
this type of representation. Here I'd like to emphasize the fact that as democracy develops, the roles of political
parties increases. The political parties have the duty to carry out activities, be more representative and not
to exclude groups from society. So the parties should become more democratic and act to develop citizenry. Again,
to develop adequate communication to develop the citizenship.
Personally, I made an effort as a locally elected and I prepared a report in Arabic and French, because the court
where I have been elected, are Arabaphone and Francophone, to tell them what I have carried out, what is the role
of the elected and what are the proposals that have been made and try to report to them and tell them about it
and I think it is very important. Communication is very important, not only to inform them of what we do but again
it's an educational one for the electors themselves.
The last point I'd like to talk, is to talk about the representation of women. I think we should have recommendations
for a better representation of women because women -- this is the last point, sir -- have been met with a lot of
handicaps for many centuries and have been excluded from political life. If we ask them to contribute and to present
them to the elections in the same conditions as men, they would not be able to assume representation and this creates
a kind of deformation of the representation of society. I shall give you an idea, when you exclude women, you do
not exclude women, you exclude the young children whose plight is closely linked to the plight of women. We realize
that perhaps 70% or 80% of the population, which is excluded, through the exclusion of women, I think we have to
think on that and say that we cannot act for democracy if we do not think of the representation of women. Thank
you.
Chair: Thank you. We have to hear the comments from each of the first presenters, three people here. I am
supposed to try to attempt to summarize their discussion. So we have very little time left. So would you cooperate
with me and try to make your intervention just about four minutes. Then I give the floor to Mongolia representative.
Oorj Nergui: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, I'm representing myself. My name is Oorj Nergui, Senior
Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mongolia. Secondly, my colleague, Mr. Galbatra Digowan (ph), from one of the largest
provinces of Mongolia.
First of all, we are talking about a very important topic, public trust. The reform process is always painful for
everyone, mainly to the [inaudible] group of the population. Building public trust, therefore, is much more important
than other issues.
I would focus on two or maybe three issues that I prefer to gain public trust. First, I found education would be
very important for this, especially when your country is moving from a very different system such as a centrally
planned economic and one party system, to a multi-party political system and a market economy. So explaining the
importance of moving towards a market economy and a multi-party system, this is the major element to gain this
trust.
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