A legislative election was held in the South Ossetia on Sunday 31 May.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Ossetia is semi-presidential (see previous post). The constitution is available in Russian here.

On Sunday, the presidential election was held. The incumbent, pro-Russian, president, Eduard Kokoity is term-limited. Therefore, there was a vote for a new president.

The South Ossetia Election Commission is giving some details of the vote in Russian. Apparently, turnout was 67.05%. The top two candidates were:

Anatoly Bibilov – 25.44%
Alla Dzhioeva – 25.37%

Anatoly Bibilov is currently the Minister for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Management and is reputed to be Russian-leaning. Alla Dzhioeva is a former minister. According to RTE/RL she is the main opposition candidate and “supports preserving the region’s quasi-independence and cracking down on corruption”. President Kokoity’s preferred candidate does not seem to have qualified for the second round.

The second round will be held in two weeks.