South Ossetia to hold second round of vote

The first round of voting in South Ossetia has not seen any candidate for president gain at least 50% of vote, and a the second round is to be held, CEC head Bella Pliyeva said, Interfax reports.

Former education minister Alla Jidoyeva is leading in 78 out of 86 polling stations with 24.6%, Emergencies Minister Anatoly Bibilov follows her with 23.8% of vote.

Other candidates received 0.2%-9.3% of vote. 

The second round of vote will be held within 15 days. Over 30% of the population needs to vote.

At the same time South Ossetia has held a referendum on Russian language as the second state language of the republic, CEC head Bella Pliyeva said. She did not given any figures on the vote.
Eskin Avigdor, a member of the Israeli monitoring organization CIS-EMO, says that the elections meet all international standards.

South Ossetia is for enforcement of the Russian language, the language uniting all peoples living on the post-Soviet territories. Each ethnicity has own peculiarity, culture and unity. Alanians have great and ancient history. Giving the Russian language status of state language is worth to be an example for others, Eskins goes on.

The monitor expressed hope that the initiative will contribute to rapprochement of peoples living in the Caucasus and areas of the former Soviet Union.