Leonid Tibilov, the former head of South Ossetia’s KGB, carried the runoff presidential vote in the republic on Sunday with 54 percent of the ballots, his rival's campaign staff said.
David Sanakoyev, Tibilov's opponent at the polls, scored 43 percent of the vote after all ballots were counted, Sanakoyev's representatives said. Tibilov's staffers confirmed his victory, though election officials did not comment as of late Sunday.
The turnout in the small Caucasus country of 72,000 stood at 63 percent two hours before the vote’s end, far above the minimum threshold of 30 percent, the local Central Elections Commission said.
No major violations were reported throughout the day, and a vote monitor from Russia’s Central Elections Commission called the vote fair on Sunday. The European Union and the United States said earlier that they do not recognize the vote as legitimate because they still consider South Ossetia part of Georgia.
The republic, recognized only by a handful of countries, including Russia, held a runoff presidential vote in November, when opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva defeated alleged Kremlin candidate Anatoly Bibilov.
But the vote’s results were canceled by the republic’s Supreme Court over alleged vote rigging on part of Dzhioyeva, who was banned from running in the repeat vote. Dzhioyeva’s refused to recognize the court's decision, but her protests ended in a police crackdown on her office and her brief hospitalization over heart problems.
