TBILISI, DFWatch – The opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva in Georgia’s breakaway republic South Ossetia is calling for supporters to return and continue the protest against the cancelled election results.
Dzhioyeva Sunday called off her demonstrations on Tskhinvali’s main square, and asked on supporters to go home. It seemed for a few days that an agreement between her and the authorities would hold. It meant the dismissal of three top officials, in addition to president Eduard Kokoity, who left his post Saturday.
But Wednesday the region’s elected assembly blocked the dismissal of two officials; the supreme court chief and the prosecutor general.
Dzhioyeva afterwards said in a statement directed at the Russian government that the situation now is so difficult that it requires ‘urgent response’ in order to avoid a civil war. But Russian president Dimitry Medvedev said that the people who live in the region must decide how to run it, and Russia can only offer to be a mediator, according to RIA Novosti.
South Ossetia held internationally unrecognized presidential elections on November 27. Initial results indicated that Alla Dzhioyeva won a decisive victory over Kremlin favorite Anatoly Bibilov, but two days later the election was declared invalid by the region’s supreme court, which scheduled new elections for March 25.
Dzhioyeva mobilized supporters with the aim of claiming the presidency, and after a tense week a deal was made with the authorities which allowed her to stand in the new election.
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