World · Mongolia · Local power worldwide

Who runs local government in Mongolia?

Mongolia has three local levels: 21 provinces (*aimags*) and the capital Ulaanbaatar; about 330 rural districts (*soums*) and 9 city districts; and, at the bottom, small rural units (*baghs*) and urban sub-districts (*khoroos*). Each of the upper two levels has an elected assembly (*khural*) and a governor who is nominated by that assembly but appointed by the level above, so local government mixes election and central control. In the vast countryside, herding households and soum centres are the main points of contact with the state.

Mongolia · Unitary semi-presidential republic · Eastern Asia

The levels of government below the nation

Level	How it is chosen	What it does
Provinces (21 aimags) and the capital city (Ulaanbaatar)	Citizens' representative khural elected every four years; governor nominated by the khural and appointed by the Prime Minister	Regional services, budgets, supervision of soums; governors also represent the central government.
Soums (about 330) and Ulaanbaatar districts (9 duuregs)	Khural elected; governor nominated by the khural and appointed by the aimag or capital governor	Schools, clinics, pasture management, local services.
Baghs (about 1,560) and khoroos (about 150 at last OECD–UCLG count)	Citizens' public khural (general meeting of residents) nominates the governor, who is appointed by the soum or district governor	No assembly or budget of their own; registration, pasture coordination, local information.

Three questions about local power in Mongolia

Are local leaders elected?

Aimag, capital, soum and district khurals are elected; governors at every level are nominated locally but appointed by the level above (the Prime Minister for aimags).

Which laws set up local government?

Local government is in Chapter IV of the Constitution and the Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and their Governance; bagh/khoroo public meetings are formal; elders and herder camps are informal.

Who are local leaders accountable to?

Voters; khurals, which can propose a governor's removal; the governor at the level above and the Prime Minister, who appoint and can dismiss governors; the courts and audit bodies.

Traditional and customary authority

There is no formal customary authority. Respected elders and Buddhist monasteries (and, in the west, Kazakh community leaders) have social influence, and herders follow customary rules on pasture use and seasonal movement, but these have no separate legal status; pasture is managed under state land law.

Community and neighbourhood power

The bagh or khoroo citizens' public khural is a formal meeting of all residents that discusses local issues and the local development fund. Herding households group together informally in *khot ail* (camps of related families). Ulaanbaatar's ger districts have residents' groups linked to khoroo offices. Mongolia has also used deliberative polling (a sample of citizens debating an issue) for constitutional changes and local projects, required by a 2017 law.

Points to know

Governors are 'dual': nominated by the local assembly but appointed and supervised from above.
Ulaanbaatar holds about half of the country's people, so the capital's khural and governor are especially powerful.
A Local Development Fund (since 2013) gives soums and districts money for projects chosen with residents.

Local terms

Aimag: A province.
Soum: A rural district within a province.
Khural: An assembly; at local level, the elected citizens' representative assembly.
Bagh / khoroo: The smallest rural and urban units.

Sources

Mongolia's Constitution of 1992 with Amendments through 2001 (Chapter IV), Constitute Project, checked 14 October 2026
Unified Legal Information System (Legalinfo), Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Mongolia, checked 14 October 2026
Country profile: Mongolia (subnational government), OECD–UCLG World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment (SNG-WOFI), checked 14 October 2026