Nagorno-Karabakh holds parliamentary election
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 19, 2005 Sunday

YEVERAN, June 19 — Residents of the mostly Armenian populated
Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh hold on Sunday a parliamentary
election. This is the fourth parliamentary election in the unrecognized
republic, which proclaimed its independence in 1991.

All polling stations opened at 08:00 a.m., local time, on Sunday. One
polling station was organized in Yerevan. According to the chairman
of the republic’s central electoral committee, Sergei Nasibyan,
89,500 voters have been registered.

A total of 106 candidates are contesting 33 seats. Observers believe
the ruling Democratic Party of Karabakh, the opposition bloc of
the nationalist Dashnak Party and the Movement 88 organization have
the biggest chances. The Democratic Party is led by the minister of
education and culture, Ashot Gulyan.

Over 120 international observers and reporters from Armenia,
Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, France and the USA have arrived in
Nagorno-Karabakh to monitor and cover the election.

The president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Gukasyan, said on Saturday
that the authorities will do everything to ensure that the election
is just, objective and transparent. Azerbaijan has dubbed the Sunday
voting illegitimate.