Lawmakers Kh.Bulgantuya, B.Jargalmaa, J.Munkhbat and J.Sukhbaatar held a press briefing, and introduced lawmaker.parliament.mn electronic system for drafting bills and lawforum.parliament.mn for voting on bills on December 22.
J.Munkhbat noted that in order to ensure quality and prompt services to citizens without bureaucracy, cooperate and be open, the government is focusing on digitalizing its activities and has started many “creative” activities. Lawmakers will be able to work with citizens to draft legislation, he said.
The lawmaker.parliament.mn electronic system is a platform for members of Parliament, while the lawforum.parliament.mn system provides an opportunity for citizens to draft bills, participate in discussions, and express their views on proposed legal provisions.
“Citizens can participate in the drafting process by receiving invitations from lawmakers through the lawmaker.parliament.mn system. Parliamentarians have the opportunity to meet with their constituencies, provide information on bill, compile relevant proposals, and incorporate them into the draft through the system. Currently, the system has 95 registered users,” J.Munkhbat said.
Noting that in 2019, Parliament passed a parliamentary strategic plan from 2019 to 2024, lawmaker J.Sukhbaatar said, “The vision is to become a Parliament in which the people have the right to govern. The strategic plan states that there will be a Parliament that effectively performs its legislative and oversight functions, represents the people, and is trusted by the people. These e-system are very effective and an important measure.”
“In the near future, after the government submits a bill on education and bill on controlling alcohol circulation and combating alcoholism to Parliament, citizens will be able to submit their comments through lawforum.parliament.mn and receive information on each stage of the discussion. Parliament introduced this innovation to enable citizens to exercise their right to govern through their representatives and to participate directly,” he added.
Highlighting that a value of democracy lies in citizen participation, lawmaker Kh.Bulgantuya said, “Citizens are interested in participating in development and discussion of bills and resolutions. The Law on Legislation provides for a 45-day public discussion of a bill. However, citizens would not know how to participate. Therefore, their participation was low. The introduction of this system of participatory drafting and discussion within the framework of parliamentary reform provides an opportunity for citizens to participate, unite and cooperate. Citizens living and working not only in Ulaanbaatar and local areas, but also abroad can participate in the discussion of bills and resolutions and express their views on each article and provision.”
Lawmaker B.Jargalmaa noted that when a bill’s information is amended, a list of options will be created and stored in a step-by-step manner without changing the basic information, so users can summarize their comments on bills and compare the latest and previous versions of bills.
