TSKHINVAL, March 26 (Itar-Tass) —— Leonid Tibilov, the former head of South Ossetia’s State Security Committee, and David Sanakoyev, the republic’s human rights ombudsman, will vie for South Ossetian president in the runoff elections, with 42.48 and 24.58 percent of the vote respectively, chairwoman of the South Ossetian Central Election Commission Bella Pliyeva said on Monday.
Final results, according to Pliyeva, will be announced within five days.
Other candidates, Dmitry Medoyev, South Ossetia’s ambassador to Russia, won 23.79 percent of the vote, and Stanislav Kochiyev, the leader of the South Ossetian Communist Party, won 5.26 percent of the vote.
The turnout was 70.28 percent of the 34,000 eligible voters.
In line with South Ossetia’s laws, the runoff elections are to be held within 15 days. However, reports coming from South Ossetia say that the runoff voting will be held on April 7. The voting will be valid in case more than 30 percent of voters take part. The president will be elected by simple majority of votes.
After first preliminary results of the Sunday presidential elections were announced, David Sanakoyev told a news conference that he would try to win support of those who voted for the candidates who had dropped out of the presidential race. In all, local observers say Tibilov has good chances to win the race. Meanwhile, Medoyev has recognized the results of the first round of elections.
Observers say the runoffs are unlikely to entail civil disaccord like the one that followed the presidential elections in November 2011. “The election campaign was held in a proper way, with neither of the candidates making pot shots against each other, so there is hope the elections will come to a logical end,” Pliyeva told Itar-Tass.