South Osetian authorities never prevent residents of republic's Georgian villages from taking part in Georgian elections

A week before the elections for the Georgian parliament, South Osetia's parliament passed a resolution on the illegitimacy of this procedure on the territory of the unrecognized republic. Chairman of the parliament Stanislav Kochiyev explained the decision was based on the articles of the Constitution of the Republic of South Osetia that stress South Osetia is a sovereign state. The Georgian population living in several villages on the territory of South Osetia constitutes over 10% of the total republican population. This territory is not under the jurisdiction of the South Osetian authorities. Leadership of the republic have never prevented Georgian citizens living there from taking part in Georgian parliamentary and presidential elections.

The press service of South Osetia's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement regarding information being propagated by the Georgian side that South Osetia allegedly took active part in the Georgian parliamentary elections. "We have to state with regret that the new Georgian leadership distinctly continues a campaign to misinform the world community about the real state of affairs in the zone of the Georgian-Osetian conflict, which does not contribute to the strengthening of trust between the two neighboring peoples. The Georgian authorities and foreign organizations assisting them in the holding of the elections are trying to present what they wish as the reality. It, in its turn, raises doubts of the information about the elections both in several Georgian villages on the territory of South Osetia and on the whole," reads the statement of the press service.

Editors note: See also the article "Abkhazia and South Osetia will not take part in Georgian parliamentary elections".