TBILISI, Georgia, April 9 (UPI) -- Presidential elections in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, won by a pro-Russian former KGB official, drew a rebuke from a Georgian official Monday.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said the occupied region was a part of Georgia and efforts to elect national leaders were illegitimate, RIA Novosti reported.
"Our position remains unchanged," Kalandadze said. "The Tskhinval region remains an occupied territory of Georgia and any attempt to carry out any form of legitimate act will not be considered legitimate until those expelled on ethnic grounds have the right to vote."
Former South Ossetian KGB chief Leonid Tibilov won Sunday's elections in the breakaway republic with 54.12 percent of the vote.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over South Ossetia in 2008. Russia later recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic. Many ethnic Georgians fled because if inter-ethnic fighting following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
South Ossetia has a runoff presidential election in November in which opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva defeated Russia-backed Anatoly Bibilov. The republic's Supreme Court nullified the vote over allegations of vote-rigging by Dzhioyeva, who was banned from running in the subsequent election.
