Source: News.mn, Australia Network News                  Date: 10 November, 2010

At a party conference that wrapped up last week, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) voted to retake the name it used in the early 1920s. The party will henceforth be known as the Mongolian People’s Party. Education Minister Yo. Otgonbayar, who is also a member of the party’s governing council, said only six delegates voted against the measure.

The conference sat until Saturday 5 am and 85 percent of delegates voted in favor of Prime Minister S.Batbold continuing as party chairman. The names of Parliament Speaker D.Demberel and MP U.Enkhtuvshin had also been proposed for the post, but Mr. Demberel refused to contest and Mr. Enkhtuvshin got 15 percent of the votes.

Losing the MPRP label is however not something the party is willing to do overnight. According to Mr. Otgonbayar, the MPP will also use the acronym MPRP in its literature, at least until the next election, scheduled for 2012. “MPRP is like JVC - it’s a brand name that everyone knows, even if some people don’t know what the letters stand for,” he said.

“We had many revolutions during the 20th century. We had the People’s Revolution, an educational revolution, an agricultural revolution and a democratic revolution. So the word revolution fit our party during that era,” he said. “But now we are in the 21st century and we have a new vision - not of revolution, but of development and social harmony.” The newly-christened MPP was the country’s first political party, founded in 1921. The word “revolutionary” was added three years later.

After a decade of trying to modernize the party, the MPP - which formally abandoned its communist ideology following the events of 1990 - now calls itself a centre-left democratic formation. Elder cadres have been retired and the party has worked hard to lure fresh blood into its ranks.