Even before the May 2014 parliamentary elections in which it garnered 20 of the 34 mandates, the One Ossetia party of which Bibilov is chairman had called for holding a referendum on the unification within the Russian Federation of South Ossetia and the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania on which it borders. The United States and all but a handful of countries consider South Ossetia and Abkhazia to be parts of Georgia. In late March, when Tibilov visited the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz, where many of the estimated 10,000 citizens of South Ossetia who fled during or since the fighting of August 2008 still live, Republic of North Ossetia head Vyacheslav Bitarov called on them to vote for Tibilov. Voters in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia are electing a president and deciding on a referendum on whether to add the word Alania to the region's name, which critics say would be a step toward incorporating South Ossetia into Russia.
Voters in the breakaway state of South Ossetia go to the polls for an election and a referendum. The referendum will ask voters if the country's official name should be changed to "Republic of South Ossetia–the State of Alania".