Republic of South Ossetia – Legislative election

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

The Republic of South Ossetia is recognised by only a few countries, notably Russia. There have been elections since the mid-1990s. The last legislative elections were in 2004. Then, there were two elections: one in the Russian area and one in the Georgian area. There is a report on the 2004 election in the Russian area here. This time, following the war in 2008, there is, in effect, no Georgian area.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Ossetia is semi-presidential (see previous post). The constitution is available in Russian here. The de facto president is Eduard Kokoity. He was first elected in 2001. The last presidential election was in November 2006. At that time, there was also a presidential election in the Georgia part of South Ossetia.

RFE/RL reports allegations of authoritarianism and electoral malpractice prior to the 2009 legislative election. A similar report appears in Georgia Times.

The Central Election Commission of Georgia issued a statement on 11 May that it would not recognise the elections.

Anyway, four parties competed in the 2009 legislative election: “Edinstvo” or “Unity”, the Communist Party, the People’s Party and Fydybasta (Fatherland). There are 34 seats in the legislature elected on the basis of a proportional system with a 7% threshold for representation.

According to Civil.Ge, only Fydybasta (Fatherland) is seen as being in constructive opposition to President Kokoity. Other opposition parties reportedly boycotted the election.

As of 10.44 PM local time on Sunday, the Republic of South Ossetia Information Agency was publishing the following results:

Turnout 81.93%

Communist party – 22.25 %,
Edinstvo “Unity” – 46.38 %,
Fydybasta (Fatherland) – 6.37 %,
People’s Party – 22.58 %

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