“Alternative election? It’s about us”: South Ossetia’s CEC chair

Read it in Russian

“The so-called ‘alternative election’ (held by Georgia in Tbilisi-controlled villages of South Osetia — REGNUM) is not an alternative for the election of president of South Ossetia,” head of the republic’s central electoral committee Bella Pliyeva said at a press conference at the International Press Center in Tskhinval.

Pliyeva commented to REGNUM on the issue: “The CEC of South Ossetia has registered four candidates, and this is what an alternative election is. As far as I know, today in Georgia only one candidate is propagandized, Sanakoyev, meaning that they have no alternative. It is us who is holding the democratic election, this is what the central electoral committee is doing, and I do not believe that the ‘election’ organized by the Georgian side is of any meaning at all.”

Pliyeva said that CEC of South Ossetia has repeatedly called the populace of the Georgian enclaves in South Ossetia to take part in the referendum and presidential election. “However, just as it had happened the last time, they did not respond, after, probably, being pressured from aside.”

To remind, the so-called Union of National Liberation of Ossetians acting in Georgia initiated their own election of president of South Ossetia in the territory of Georgian villages not controlled by the republic. Today, they call diverse numbers of voters that are supposed to take part in the “alternative election.” According to the official data of South Ossetian officials referring to the results of the last municipal election in Georgia, the number should not exceed 14,000.

The official Tskhinval has repeatedly pointed out that the likes of the “alternative elections” are contrary to all the legal norms and legislation of both South Ossetia and Georgia.