CAUCASUS ENCLAVE NAGORNO-KARABAKH ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
July 19, 2007 Thursday 4:26 PM EST

DPA POLITICS NKarabakh Elections Armenia Azerbaijan Caucasus enclave
Nagorno-Karabakh elects new president Stepanakert The Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave – contested by Caucasus republics Azerbaijan and Armenia –
was electing a new president Thursday.

By the afternoon some 53 per cent of the around 91,000-strong
electorate had cast their votes, meeting the election turnout
requirements, Interfax news agency reported from the capital
Stepanakert.

The counting of votes was due to begin in the evening.

According to pre-election polls, secret service chief Bako Saakyan
is considered the favourite to succeed Arkady Gukasyan. Some 60 per
cent of those questioned supported his candidacy.

The orderly operation of the elections was an important step towards
the construction of an independent state and the strengthening of
democracy, the head of central electoral committee, Sergei Nassibiyan
said.

The enclave, which is mainly populated by Armenians, passed its own
constitution in December.

Armenia has occupied the 4,400-square-metre region in Azerbaijan’s
territory since the early 1990s, when the Karabakh Armenians drove
out Azerbaijani troops in a bloody civil war.

In mid-June, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had warned against
the reignition of separatist conflicts on the Caucasus.

"The ceasefire is brittle everywhere," he said.

Azerbaijan would not recognize the presidential elections he told
the government in Baku.

According to sources from the former Soviet region of Nagorno-
Karabakh, some 47 international observers were present at the
elections, including representatives from Germany, France, Russia and

the United States.

International recognition of the region has so far been unsuccessful.