Prior to this, South Ossetia had no executive branch of government, and the Speaker of Parliament was the head of state.

Following the 1992 war, South Ossetia had a working relationship with the Georgian government, namely though the Joint Control Commission for Georgian–Ossetian Conflict Resolution, and a $270,000 allocation for the region by the 1999 budget.

[1] Prior to the election of Eduard Kokoyty to the office of President of South Ossetia in 2001, most politicians in the Republic where either independents or Communists.

[2] The results were a sweeping victory for the Communist Party of South Ossetia, which won 27 of the 33 seats with over 80% of the vote.

The result was a major blow to the aspirations of independent President Lyudvig Chibirov, who was accused by his Communist opposition of working with the Georgian government to reach an agreement under which South Ossetia would rejoin Georgia, on the condition of local autonomy and an independent legislature from Tbilisi, similar to the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast.