The presidential elections in South Ossetia are scheduled for November 13. The Central Electoral Committee has already registered a number of candidates and is considering a dozen more applications. The only polling station not situated within the borders of South Ossetia will be open in Moscow, while in North Ossetia, the home of many South Ossetian citizens, no stations will be organized.
Before this decision, the republic of South Ossetia restricted entry to the state, due "to complications in the registration process of some candidates." When the ‘complication’ was overcome, the government lifted the restriction.
However, it is too early to say that the situation surrounding the elections has been stabilized. For example, experts estimate that the vote of no confidence in the parliamentary speaker is yet another manipulation on the part of the President. The situation surrounding the rejection of one of the candidates by the Central Electoral Committee’s registration board triggered the response of important public figures not only in Ossetia, but abroad as well.
In early October the chief manager of Russia's freestyle wrestling national team, Dzambolat Tedeyev, filed an action with the South Ossetian Supreme Court demanding to repeal the decision of the Central Electoral Committee that rejected his candidature, as he hadn’t permanently resided in the republic for the past 10 years. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, 150 of Tedeyev’s partisans broke into the Central Electral Committee’s building, demanding to register Tedeyev as a presidential candidate.
At the same time, Ossetian Olympic champions supporting Tedeyev signed an appeal to Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to turn his attention towards the developments in Tskhinvali and condemn the repressive actions of the current South Ossetian government, as well as help stabilize the situation.
Prominent figures of Ossetian civic society called on their compatriots to be more active and try to turn the campaigning back to its proper legal framework, condemning all powers that take radical steps leading towards a national emergency.
Pavel Martynov, exclusively to VK
