A court in South Ossetia sentenced a voter to 15 days in custody for trying to take away several ballot papers during Sunday’s presidential elections in the former Georgian republic, police said.
“The man received his ballot paper but attempted to seize several other voting slips from the pack and carry them from the polling station,” said Vitaly Gassiyev, deputy chief of the South Ossetian interior ministry.
Medical tests showed that the 55-year-old intruder, Georgy Medoyev bearing the same last name as one of the presidential candidates, had been under alcohol intoxication during the incident, said Uruzmag Kochiyev, acting chief of the local police headquarters in the capital Tskhinvali.
The election staff of presidential candidate Dmitry Medoyev said the name-sake's action was a provocation against their candidate.
"Police said it was a cousin of Boris Chochiyev, an election agent of presidential candidate Leonid Tibilov," Medoyev's election staff said.
South Ossetians are electing a leader from among Dmitry Medoyev, the South Ossetian ambassador to Russia; David Sanakoyev, the presidential human rights ombudsman; Leonid Tibilov, former chair of the State Security Committee; and Communist leader Stanislav Kochiyev.
South Ossetia’s self-proclaimed independence from Georgia has been recognized by Russia and few other countries.
