Chairman of UB Citizens’ Khural receives James Fishkin

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Chairman of the Citizens’ Representative Khural of Ulaanbaatar Mr D.Battulga received James S.Fishkin, a professor at the Department for Communication of Stanford University and a head of the Stanford Consultative Democracy Center, on Wednesday. The latter is on a visit here by invitation of the Mayor E.Bat-Uul. Mr Battulga thanked the Prof. for accepting the city administration’s invitation and said this visit has been very well-timed. "The President of Mongolia initiated the introduction of Direct Democracy to the city in 2010. In its scope, Citizen’s Halls have been established in the UB's 100 khoroos (smallest administrative unit in a city), and a framework of reflecting the citizens’ views has commenced. However, the Halls are being used for its image, but not for their true meaning," said Battulga. Ulaanbaatar accommodates 44 percent of Mongolia’s population, it has many problems that need to be solved with citizens’ participation, "in many cases, the actions of the municipality administration face protests, although the issues have been approved with 60-70 percent. Therefore, we need to learn from Your practices of decision-making based on the free polling. We would like Your cooperation in major projects and programs," he said. In response, Mr Fishkin said the effort to reflect the citizens’ opinions into activities and decision-making is a great advantage. Mongolia becomes the 22nd country to realize the Consultative Democracy, which is often utilized in developed and developing countries, he noted and emphasized that this is fully possible to be implemented in Ulaanbaatar, for this form of democracy is an approach for improving the governance quality by organizing public polls with more scientific basis. Ulaanbaatar city has no official rule, "and this allow us an opportunity to start afresh," said Mr Battulga and proposed that the Consultative Democracy is observed after designating a list of problems that need to be settled. Mr Fishkin approved this opinion and expressed a willingness to cooperate.