South Ossetia: number of complaints about non-admission to elections reaches 13

The Supreme Court (SC) of South Ossetia has upheld the refusal of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to register seven nominees for MPs; the claims of six other candidates have arrived at the SC. The voter turnout will be low, one of the candidates has suggested.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that parliamentary elections in South Ossetia are scheduled for June 9. For the first time in 15 years, they will pass according to a mixed majority system.

On May 20, the registration refusal was appealed against at the SC by three nominees for MPs from the list of the "Nykhas" Party and one self-nominee, Zarina Tedeeva, the press secretary of the South-Ossetian SC, explained on May 21, adding that two more nominees from one-mandate electoral constituencies had filed similar claims.

According to her story, earlier the SC dismissed claims of seven candidates who had challenged the registration denial.

The parliament of the sixth convocation amended the electoral law and rights, by reducing the campaign period from 30 to 20 days, which created difficulties for candidates, a candidate from one of the parliamentary parties, who asked not to mention his name, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The new parliamentary elections are held under a mixed majority system; and the number of candidates has increased tens-fold. At all the previous parliamentary elections, only parties ran for the parliament seats. Today, we see that there are hundreds of candidates for MPs; thus, what was the logic of the amendments? They just complicate everything," he has complained.

According to the candidate, the voters' interest in the elections is low, which may affect the voter turnout on the election day.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 22, 2019 at 12:37 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.