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MongoliaPolitical Bureau and Secretariat
The Political Bureau is elected by the Central Committee to
conduct the party's business between plenary sessions of the
Central Committee and to provide the top leadership for the party
and the country. As the senior policy-making body, it establishes
specific goals; and it regularly evaluates the progress of
national programs.
The Secretariat also functions between plenary sessions, and
it is the administrative center of the party apparatus. It is
elected by the Central Committee to oversee implementation of the
Party Program and party resolutions and to select leading cadres.
This last function gives the Secretariat
nomenklatura (see Glossary),
the authority to make appointments to the key
positions in both the party and the government bureaucracies.
The ruling hierarchy was stable during the 1980s. In May
1986, the Political Bureau included seven members and three
candidate members. The Secretariat was composed of six
secretaries. Batmonh was reelected general secretary of the
Central Committee. These elections produced few changes; four
leaders were retained as both Political Bureau members and
secretaries of the Central Committee. Three leaders were retained
as members of only the Political Bureau, and three were elected
candidate Political Bureau members. Two new secretaries were
elected to the Central Committee. This leadership group,
averaging fifty-nine years of age, was changed somewhat at the
third plenary session--or fully constituted meeting--of the
Central Committee in June 1987, when one Political Bureau member
retired and was replaced by a candidate member. By 1989 the
Political Bureau had been reduced to nine members after the death
of one candidate member. Two Political Bureau members mentioned
as likely successors to Batmonh were Bat-Ochiryn Altangerel, a
former Ulaanbaatar first secretary, and Tserendeshiyn Namsray, a
member of the party Secretariat and chairman of the MongolianSoviet Friendship Society.
Some party leaders held concurrent key government positions.
For example, Batmonh was chairman of the Presidium of the
People's Great Hural, and Sodnom was chairman of the Council of
Ministers, or premier. All Political Bureau members and candidate
members also were deputies to the People's Great Hural. The known
substantive responsibilities of the top party leadership covered
several specialties: party disciplinary affairs, law and
administration, foreign affairs, building and construction, and
industry.
Data as of June 1989
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