South Ossetia’s strongman leader tightened his grip on the breakaway Georgian region yesterday after a loyal party emerged as the clear winner of legislative elections.
Eduard Kokoity, a former wrestling champion accused by his critics of muzzling opponents and stealing aid money sent from Russia, could now use a parliamentary majority to allow himself to stand for another term in office.
Nine months after Russia and Georgia fought a war over the status of South Ossetia, the mountainous Caucasus region remains largely in ruins and has only been recognized as independent by Moscow and Nicaragua.
Final results issued by the election commission after Sunday’s elections said Yedinstvo (Unity) — the party most vocally supportive of Kokoity — was the clear winner after polling 46.36 percent.
The People’s Party, also largely uncritical of Kokoity, won 22.53 percent while the Communists scored 22.25 percent.
“We will work closely together to follow the path of independence that the republic has chosen,” Kokoity said as the results were announced.
However none of the four parties competing for the 34 seats in the parliament could be described as overtly critical of the leader after the central election commission barred the two other parties.
The name of Unity resembles Russia’s ruling party United Russia and it even used pictures of United Russia party leader Boris Gryzlov on its campaign literature.
“South Ossetia has gone on the United Russia path. A decisive role [in Unity’s victory] was played by their active use of the methods of United Russia,” Russia’s Kommersant daily said.
The sidelined opposition has accused Kokoity of seeking a loyal parliament to push through an amendment allowing him to run again for office when his second term lapses in 2011.
Kokoity said it was too early to say whether he would run again to lead the region of 50,000 people although he did not rule out that possibility.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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