According to preliminary data, the candidate for the presidency of South Ossetia, Nikhas party leader Alan Gagloyev has received 36.9 percent of the votes after the processing of the 95 percent of the ballots cast in Sunday’s presidential elections, and is leading. The statement came from Emilia Gagiyeva, chairwoman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of South Ossetia, at a press briefing on Monday.

As a result, a second round of the presidential elections will be held in South Ossetia, as no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round.

The presidential runoff will be held no later than 15 days after the publicizing of the first-round results, and Gagloyev and incumbent President Anatoly Bibilov will compete in it as the top two vote-getters of the first round

After 95 percent of the ballots were counted, the voter turnout was 74.28 percent in Sunday’s elections.