Togmidyn Dorjkhand | |
|---|---|
Тогмидын Доржханд | |
.jpg) Dorjkhand in 2020 | |
| Member of the State Great Khural | |
| Assumed office 30 June 2020 | |
| Constituency | Khan Uul |
| Leader of the Hun Party | |
| Assumed office 15 January 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Badrakhyn Naidalaa |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1977 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia |
| Political party | Hun Party |
| Alma mater | National University of Mongolia (1999) Hitotsubashi University (2004) Harvard University (2010) University of Oxford (2012) |
Togmidyn Dorjkhand (Mongolian: Тогмидын Доржханд, pronounced Tog-myd-yn Dor-zhi-hand; born 1977) is a Mongolian politician, serving as a member of the parliament (MP) and Leader of the Hun Party.[1] He has been serving in the parliament since 2020;[2] originally elected from the Right Person Electorate Coalition,[3] he is the only MP from his party.
His career in the 2000s is characterised by his role in the Ministry of Treasury as a financial specialist. After graduating from the National University of Mongolia with a Bachelor's degree in Finance in 1999, he joined the Ministry of Treasury, first as Strategy and Management Specialist in the Procurement Department in 2001, then as Budget Policy Specialist directly under the Minister.[4] In 2003, he went to Japan to obtain a Master's degree in State Economic Policy in Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo while interning at Japan's finance ministry.
In the early 2010s, he started looking abroad for economic development examples by studying at Harvard University and the University of Oxford and working with the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund on various projects. In 2015, he entered the politics by joining the Hun Party (then National Labour Party) on a platform for fighting corruption, efficiency in the public sector, quality health care, education and effective social policies.[4]
The Hun Party has been steadily gaining ground in the recent years, and it is currently the only party with a seat in the State Great Khural and Municipal Councils except the two mainstream parties. When the Democratic Party was divided into anti and pro-Battulga factions in 2021, many dissatisfied voters and non-partisan affiliates turned to the Hun Party, which is illustrated by its remarkable performance in the 2021 presidential election. In the presidential election, it took the second place by a vote share of around 25%, thereby outrunning the Democratic Party, which has been the main opposition to the Mongolian People's Party for over 30 years, signalling a seismic shift in the country's political landscape.[5]
Accusations on his political gerrymandering, controversial stances on numerous political issues, and his party's insistence on self-loathing and anti-democratic principles have drawn sharp criticism. Badrakh Naidalaa, one of the prominent members of the HUN Party, has repeatedly called supporters of the MPP and the DP as, "...nothing more than common lowest denominators, whom are not fit to vote",[6] which Dorjkhand himself has echoed multiple times on his social media platforms.[7]
His position on the potential expansion on the number of seats on the Mongolian State Great Khural has levied criticism from both civic society and the political scenes alike,[8] and in addition, developments in early 2023 has revealed that he has engaged in illegal means and used state funds meant for academic tuitions to send his wife,[9] and his son overseas to study. Their loans have not been paid, according to local media reports.[10]