AZERBAIJAN: ELECTION IN BREAKAWAY REGION

Stratfor
July 20 2007

Bako Saakyan, former head of the security service in Azerbaijan’s
breakaway province of Nagorno-Karabakh, won 85 percent of the vote
in the July 19 leadership election, according to preliminary results
released by the central election committee July 20. Masis Mailyan,
Saakyan’s main opponent, received 10.9 percent of the vote. The
Organization of the Islamic Conference and the French government
condemned the election, while the United States called it fair and
transparent. Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province, declared
its independence in the 1990s. Azerbaijan does not recognize it.