South-Ossetian CEC schedules second round of presidential election for May 8

The second round of the presidential election in South Ossetia will be held on May 8, Emilia Gagieva, the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), has informed after receiving a reasoned decision from the Supreme Court (SC) that banned holding voting on a weekday.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 23, the South-Ossetia SC overturned the CEC's decision to schedule the second round of the presidential election for April 28. Thus, the SC has satisfied the claim of voters living in Vladikavkaz, who demanded to schedule the voting for a day off.

On April 25, the CEC sent a request to the SC asking to clarify the decision to cancel the date of the second round and explain when the voting can be held. On the same day, the CEC received a reasoned SC's response dated April 23 and scheduled the second round of the presidential election for May 8.

"The date was defined at a sitting of the CEC on Monday (April 25) by a majority vote. When setting the date, the CEC was guided by the SC's decision that referred to point 2 of Article 10 of the Constitutional Law 'On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia', which states that voting is scheduled exclusively for Sunday and voting on holidays is not allowed; and we based our decision on this point," Ms Gagieva has explained.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 25, 2022 at 10:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.