Breakaway South Ossetia Elects President

This article was originally published and prepared by Hromadske's partners Jam News. Read the full text here. 

Today, April 9, presidential elections and referendum on the renaming of the republic the “State of South Ossetia-Alania” are simultaneously held in South Ossetia.

Georgia, considering South Ossetia an occupied part of its territory, regards both the presidential elections and the referendum as illegitimate actions that do not have legal consequences.

There are three candidates for the presidency of South Ossetia:

• The incumbent president, Leonid Tibilov
• Chairman of the Parliament Anatoly Bibilov
• And the local KGB officer Alan Gagloev

The latter two predominantly base their election campaign on criticism of the current government which they call ineffective and dependent solely on Russian subsidies.

The slogan of incumbent President Tibilov is “Stability and Development.”

Shortly before the election, President Tibilov was received by the Russian president, who determines more than 90 percent of the budget of South Ossetia with the allotment of subsidies.

In the meantime, all three candidates share the idea of South Ossetia’s joining to Russia and its renaming, based on the results of the referendum , “the State of South Ossetia-Alania”.

A total of 77 polling stations will be opened on the territory of the republic, 5 of them on the territory of Russia.

According to the CEC, 32.736 thousand voters are registered in the republic, with final lists of voters still missing.

The turnout threshold is 50 percent plus one vote. In order to win, the candidate must collect more than 50 percent of the votes.

Opponents of the current government are mostly concerned about falsifications on the three polling stations located on the territory of North Ossetia.