Tsakhia Elbegdorj won the presidency in with a narrow election win over incumbent Nambaryn Enkhbayar in May 24 2009. He was set to take office later in the month. Standing for the opposition Democratic Party, Elbegdorj won just over 51% of the vote, to 47% for Enkhbayar, whose ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) said it accepted the result as fair.
The peaceful outcome came after fears that the violence which followed opposition claims of fraud after the Democratic Party’s defeat in the 2008 parliamentary elections would be repeated. Elbegdorj campaigned on promises to fight corruption and to spread the profits of Mongolia’s mineral wealth more widely.
To achieve the second aim, he planned to tighten rules for contracts under which foreign mining firms operate.
His message proved popular in the big cities, especially the Ulaanbaatar, and was helped by widespread poverty.
However, he faced a parliament which continued to be dominated by a solid MPRP majority, but the MPRP prime minister, Sanj Bayar, promised to work smoothly with Elbegdorj.
Although the prime minister and parliament exercise real political power, the president heads the armed forces and has the power of veto in parliament. Frequent changes of government have enhanced the role of the presidency.
Born in 1963, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj was one of the leaders of the peaceful revolution that ended the Communist dictatorship in 1990.
Since then, he has served as prime minister twice, briefly in 1998, and in 2006-8.