(Bloomberg) — Botswana’s leader concedes defeat after his party suffered a blow in parliamentary elections; This shock result ended 58 years of power in the diamond-rich southern African country.

“I will respectfully step aside,” President Mokgweetsi Masisi said at a media briefing broadcast on state television in the capital Gaborone on Friday. “I want to congratulate the opposition. I respect the will of the people.”

Partial results released early Friday showed opposition parties won 37 of the seats in Botswana’s 61-seat parliament, while Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party won just three seats.

The BDP, which has governed Botswana since the country gained independence from Britain in 1966, had 38 seats in the previous parliament and was expected to maintain its majority.

The party paid the price for an economic collapse triggered by a decline in the diamond market, which accounts for the bulk of the government’s revenues and export earnings, leaving the country with an unemployment rate of 28%.

Final results are expected to be announced later Friday. Under Botswana’s constitution, the party that controls parliament has the right to elect a president and form a new government.

According to partial results, the Umbrella for Democratic Change, an opposition coalition led by Harvard-educated human rights lawyer Duma Boko, won 25 seats, while the Botswana Congress Party won seven. Former President Ian Khama’s Botswana Patriotic Front won five seats.

Botswana is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by value, and nearly all of its gemstones are mined by Debswana, which is jointly owned by the government and De Beers, a unit of Anglo American Plc. Global diamond sales have been hit by oversupply, weak demand in the critical Chinese market and pressure from lab-grown gems.

Masisi’s administration last year negotiated a new 10-year deal with De Beers that will give the country access to more diamonds and help it achieve 10 billion pula ($746 million) in development funding.

Boko has given no indication that it wants the agreement renegotiated.

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