Rebel Georgian region holds election, tension builds

TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia voted on Sunday in its first election since Russian forces saved it from being retaken by Georgian troops, but internal tensions grew over its leader's policies.

Georgia denounced the poll as illegal.

A sliver of land with an official population of 70,000, South Ossetia broke from central Georgian rule in a war in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union crumbled.

When Georgian forces launched an attack last August to retake it, Russian forces beat them back and Moscow has since recognised the territory as an independent state.

In the run-up to the election for a 34-seat parliament, the region's opposition, while still supporting secession from Georgia, criticised separatist leader Eduard Kokoity for squandering money pumped into the shattered region by Moscow for post-war regeneration.

"I want these elections to make life better, I want the city to finally start to be rebuilt," said Atsamas Kokoyev, a resident of the main city Tskhinvali, after voting. "I want no more war. I want life to return to normal."

Apart from Russia, only Nicaragua has recognised the region's independence.

Georgia, whose sovereignty over South Ossetia is recognised by the rest of the world, denounced the poll as illegitimate.

"What they in South Ossetia call elections are very far from real elections," Georgia's minister for reintegration, Temur Iakobashvili, told reporters in Tbilisi.