They were the first and only elections to the State Nykhas,[a] the legislature of the partially recognized South Caucasian territory which most of the United Nations recognised as part of Georgia under illegal occupation by Russian forces.

South Ossetia in the 1990s has been described by pundits and journalists as a "land forgotten by time" clinging to the Soviet Union and the practice of communism despite the wider region abandoning the political system.

[1] In September 1993 Ludvig Chibirov, a colleague of North Ossetian leader Akhsarbek Galazov, was elected head of state.

Chibirov, an independent, changed the name of the Supreme Soviet to the State Nykhas (Council of Elders), with the first elections to the newly renamed body being held in March 1994.

[1] Despite Chibirov's independents not securing a majority, he would be re-elected to his Chairmanship and one of his first actions was welcoming the Georgian-Russian peacekeeping force, the Joint Peacekeeping Force (JPKF) to occupy South Ossetia.