The prime minister of Mongolia resigned a day after protests against his government’s Covid-19 control measures broke out in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa on Thursday submitted his resignation and a proposal to dissolve his government after hundreds gathered outside the parliament building to demonstrate against the policy. The parliament, controlled by the Mongol People’s Party of Khurelsukh, voted by an overwhelming majority on Thursday to accept his resignation.
Photographer: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP Photo
In a speech on Thursday, the Prime Minister accused President Battulga Khaltmaa, of the rival Democratic Party, of orchestrating the protests. Battulga, whose term ends later this year, expressed shock at Khurelsukh’s comments in a separate speech.
“I wonder and wonder why the Prime Minister of Mongolia did such a thing that undermined the confidence of the Mongol people, undermined national unity and openly slandered the President of Mongolia,” Battulga said according to a transcript on the presidential website.
The protests erupted after a video appeared to show a mother being hastily discharged from a local maternity hospital in a bathrobe for testing positive for the coronavirus, widely circulated online. Protesters flocked to parliament on Wednesday to protest her treatment, some wearing only bathrobes and slippers to show their solidarity with the woman.
While the protests were not unusually large, they lasted well into the winter night, where temperatures can drop to -40 degrees Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit). Protesters said they were more generally upset by extensive lockdowns and movement restrictions, as well as a ban on cross-border travel.
The vast country of 3.3 million people – hemmed in between Russia and China – has so far avoided the massive coronavirus outbreaks affecting others. Mongolia has reported fewer than 1,600 infections since March, with 526 active cases as of Thursday.
(Adds dismissal accepted by legislators in third paragraph)