Mongolian Democratic Party (1990)

By late November 1989, pro-democracy youth intellectual groups in Ulaanbaatar, inspired by the waves of revolution in Eastern Europe, began to criticize the government of the Mongolian People's Republic and the socialist one-party state.^[3] The Mongolian Democratic Union (MDU) was formed by the end of 1989 and would lay the foundations for Mongolia's first opposition political party during the 1990 revolution. On 18 February 1990, the MDU convened its first conference and established the Mongolian Democratic Party (MDP). Erdeniin Bat-Üül was elected as the party's first chairman.^[1][4]

After the success of the 1990 revolution, the MDP held its first party congress on 8-9 April, during which it ratified its party charters and elected its officials.^[4] The MDP was officially registered as a legitimate political party by the Supreme Court of the Mongolian People's Republic on 7 April 1990, a day celebrated by the modern Democratic Party as the date of its first party congress and the start of its history.^[1]

In the subsequent 1990 elections, the country's first free and fair multi-party elections, the MDP would win 23 out of 430 seats in the representative People's Great Khural and 13 out of 50 seats in the newly established lower house, the State Little Khural. Therefore, making it the second-largest political party in parliament and the main opposition force against the ruling party.

In August 1991, Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, a key leader of the 1990 revolution, and his allies split off from the MDU and MDP to establish the Republican Party.^[5] Zorig's party later merged with the Mongolian Free Labour Party and wings of the MDU, and established the Mongolian United Party (MUP) on 23 March 1992.^[2]

After the ratification of a new constitution and the establishment of a unicameral parliament, the 1992 elections for the first State Great Khural were held on 28 June 1992. MDP chairman Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan signed an electoral alliance agreement with the party chairmen of the Mongolian National Progress Party (MNPP) and the Mongolian United Party on 23 April.^[2] The three-party alliance won 4 of the 76 seats in the State Great Khural.^[6] In the same year, the MDP merged with the MNPP, the MUP, and the Mongolian Renaissance Party to form the Mongolian National Democratic Party (MNDP) on 25 October.^[1][2]

The Democratic Union Coalition (DUC), an opposition coalition consisting mainly of the MNDP and the Mongolian Social Democratic Party (MSDP), would win 50 seats in the State Great Khural in the 1996 election, which was the first time the ex-communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) was out of power since 1921.^[7] However, due to many party infighting and political deadlock driven by the minority MPRP and the Mongolian Traditional United Party, the DUC fractured in late 1999 and early 2000.

Sodnomzunduin Erdene, then-party chairman of the MNDP in Ulaanbaatar, re-founded the MDP in early 2000^[8] and denounced the MSDP for bringing down the DUC's governments with the MPRP. ^[1] The party nominated candidates and contested most of the 76 constituencies in the 2000 parliamentary election. The MPRP won a landslide victory in the subsequent election, while the opposition parties, including the MNDP, gained a total of 3 seats.

On 6 December 2000, five parties, the MNDP, the MSDP, the MDP, the Mongolian Democratic Renaissance Party, and the Mongolian Religious Democratic Party, merged and formed the modern-day Democratic Party (Mongolian: Ардчилсан Нам, romanized: Ardchilsan Nam).^[4]

• Erdeniin Bat-Üül (1990–1991)
• Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan (1991–1992)
• Sodnomzunduin Erdene (2000)