Preliminary results of the parliamentary election in South Ossetia suggest that the ruling Unity Party has won with over 46% of the vote. The republic has held its first parliamentary election as an independent state.

South Ossetia was recognized as an independent state by Russia and Nicaragua following Georgia’s attack on the republic in August last year.

The voting procedure was being monitored by international observers representing a number of countries, including Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

European parliament member Giulietto Chiesa said the election was completely up to international standards:

“Everything is normal. International standards have been very clearly satisfied. I believe it is a very high demonstration of maturity. In this particular situation, the most important [thing] is the participation of people. And that is a fact. There’s a large participation and people wanted to show that they believe in their independence,” he said.

However, the OSCE monitoring body refused to participate because South Ossetia is not part of the Organization.

And the European Union has called the parliamentary election in South Ossetia “illegitimate”. The announcement was made by the Czech Republic – the country chairing the EU at the moment

throwing a spanner in the works?

On Sunday, South Ossetian officials announced that Georgia is not allowing the republic’s citizens, who are staying in Georgia temporarily, to cross the border in order to vote.

“From early morning today, Georgian authorities closed the border and are not letting South Ossetian citizens who were visiting Georgia to return to the republic to vote,” said the head of Leningorsky region of the South Ossetia on Sunday. “Many of those who came to visit their relatives in Georgia yesterday and the day before yesterday are now standing on the opposite side of the border.”

Georgia, however, denied the information, in spite of the fact that the country’s parliament labeled the election as “illegitimate”.

Georgian authorities have repeatedly called the election a farce and a Russian-backed ploy to destabilize the region.

Locals say their little Caucasian republic is defiantly choosing to focus on their future, not the past.