According to preliminary data, ex-chair of State Defense Committee Leonid Tibilov is leading the South Ossetia presidential elections with 41.94 percent of the vote, Central Electoral Commission Chief Bella Plieva said on late Sunday.
South Ossetians were electing a leader from among Tibilov, Dmitry Medoyev, the South Ossetian ambassador to Russia; David Sanakoyev, the presidential human rights ombudsman; and Communist leader Stanislav Kochiyev.
The total turnout has reached 67,53 percent, Plieva said after the county’s polling stations closed.
Sanakoyev is second with 25.36 percent of the vote and Medoyev has scored 23.8 percent, Plieva said. Some 40 percent of the ballots have been counted, she added.
Earlier, Medoyev's staff said that Sanakoyev will go in a runoff. “A technical error has been committed during the counting of the ballots. Second is Sanakoyev with about 25 percent. This means that Tibilov and Sanakoyev are going to a second round,” a spokesman said.
South Ossetia’s self-proclaimed independence from Georgia has been recognized by Russia and few other countries.
