Democratic Party Elects New Leader

O.Tsogtgerel, head of the Democratic Party’s parliamentary caucus, has been elected to lead Mongolia’s second-largest political force. In the vote held over the weekend among members of the party’s National Policy Council, he secured the highest support with 62 percent of the votes.

O.Tsogtgerel previously served as CEO of Teso LLC, one of Mongolia’s leading group companies, for more than a decade before entering politics. Since then, he has twice won parliamentary elections, in 2020 and 2024. Back in 2021, he also won a majority in the party-wide leadership election, but the Supreme Court deemed the process unlawful and refused to register him.

Democratic Party leader election results:
O.Tsogtgerel – 196 votes
B.Purevdorj – 82 votes
J.Bayarmaa – 33 votes
B.Otgonbat – 3 votes

In this year’s leadership race, he defeated Deputy Speaker of Parliament D.Purevdorj, Member of Parliament J.Bayarmaa, and Constitutional Court member B.Otgonbat. Following the vote, both D.Purevdorj and J.Bayarmaa withdrew their candidacies and pledged to support the new party leader.

O.Tsogtgerel now faces the task of leading the 42-seat opposition party into the 2027 presidential and 2028 parliamentary elections. The party had been led by L.Gantomor since January 2023. He announced his resignation from the position following the fall of the grand coalition government.