Mongolia's opposition Democrats claimed victory May 25 in presidential election after pledging to crack down on graft and better distribute the country's mining wealth.

With all but one remote western province reporting, the country's General Election Commission said Mongolian Democratic Party candidate Elbegdorj Tsakhia won 51.24 percent of the votes while incumbent Enkbayar Nambar of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, the former communists, won 47.44 percent. Turnout was 73.52 percent of the country's 1.6 million registered voters, the commission said.

The election comes as the landlocked country struggles to cope with plummeting mineral prices, which have hit the economy hard. One-third of Mongolia's 2.7 million people live below the poverty line.