MOSCOW, December 2 (Itar-Tass) — South Ossetia’s opposition has delivered an ultimatum to the authorities and urged to recognize the victory of its candidate Alla Dzhioyeva in the presidential election. On Thursday, the opposition held a many-hour rally in the capital city Tskhinval. About 1,000 protesters supported Dzhioyeva’s demand to recognize her victory in the Sunday runoff vote. The authorities employed police and armoured vehicles. There are rumors that an emergency regime might soon be imposed in Tskhinval. A Kremlin envoy, Sergei Vinokurov, spent the entire day in talks with conflicting parties but Dzhioyeva’s supporters refused to give up.
Overnight to Thursday, when several thousand protesters gathered on Tskhinval’s central square, Vinokurov, immediately upon his arrival, began talks with Dzhioyeva, the Kommersant writes. The newspaper cites an official from the South Ossetian president’s administration as saying that before the meeting with the Russian envoy Eduard Kokoity, the incumbent president, gathered all candidates who ran for president in the first round of voting and said: Moscow “doesn’t want” Alla Dzhioyeva as South Ossetian president. According to the official, Kokoity suggested that the candidates should take effort to make the Russian envoy change his mind.
The talks between Vinokurov and Dzhioyeva lasted for an hour but ended in a nil. Appearing before her supporters, Dzhioyeva asked them to go and said the talks would continue. But people were reluctant to leave the square, shouting out “They will deceive you,” “Don’t trust them.” She tried to calm them down saying she was not going to give up. In the long run, people cleared the square, by half past two in the night.
Dzhioyeva urged the country’s Supreme Court to consider her claim challenging the cancellation of the voting results before 18:00 local time on Thursday, the Novye Izvestia daily writes. “The authorities, criminal as they are,” seek to force the 17,000 citizens who had voted for the opposition candidate to renounce their views, she said, addressing her supporters. In the mean time, the central square of the capital city was turning into a scene of confrontation. Armored vehicles were brought to the square, crack troops wearing masks and armed with automatic rifles surrounded the area and snipers were seen on the roofs of the buildings around.
Later on Thursday, Dzhioyeva has a second closed-door meeting with Vinokurov. The Russian envoy is expected to help find a compromise solution to the confrontation around the voting results.