Presidential Elections Start in Breakaway Republic of South Ossetia

TSKHINVALI (Sputnik) - The breakaway republic of South Ossetia, the South Caucasus, started the presidential elections on Sunday, which will last from 08:00 local time [05:00 GMT] until 20:00, engaging 76 polling places.

There are five candidates running for the presidential office, including the current head of the breakaway republic, Anatoly Bibilov, the leader of the Nykhas opposition party, Alan Gagloev, former lawmaker Dmitry Tasoev, lawmaker Garry Muldarov, and deputy parliament speaker Alexander Pliev.

International observers from Abkhazia, Austria, Italy, Russia, the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Venezuela, Syria, the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nicaragua, and Turkey, will monitor the voting.

The polling is considered effective provided the turnout of voters is more than 50%. One of the candidates should receive over half of the votes to win the first round of the election.

Last week, Bibilov said that the republic's strategic goal is to join Russia, and the necessary legal steps will be made in the near future.

South Ossetia, along with another breakaway region, Abkhazia, declared independence from Georgia in August 2008 following an offensive of the Georgian army. The South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was bombed, and a massive civilian flight from the region took place throughout the summer of that year.

Russia has backed South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where the majority of the population held Russian citizenship. Other countries that have recognized the self-proclaimed republics include Nauru, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Georgia, and much of the world, never recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and continues to consider them an occupied part of its own territory.