Turnout exceeds 73 percent in Karabakh parliamentary election
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 19, 2005 Sunday 3:08 PM Eastern Time
YEREVAN, June 19 — The turnout was high in the Sunday parliamentary
election in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. 73.6
percent of voters visited the polling stations to elect the republican
legislature, a source in the Karabakh Central Electoral Commission
told Itar-Tass.
The count of votes is underway, and preliminary results will be
announced within hours.
Observers from several countries, including Armenia, Russia,
Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, France, the Czech Republic and the United States,
are generally satisfied with the elections, the source said. He added
that the international observers did not register serious violations
in the ballot.
This is the fourth parliamentary election in Nagorno-Karabakh after
it proclaimed independence in 1991. Not a single country of the world
has recognized the republic yet.
The ballot was held at 274 polling stations throughout the republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh and at a polling station in Yerevan, which was
opened to provide for the election rights of Karabakh citizens staying
in Armenia.
The republic has 89,500 voters, but 2,000 voters less took part
in the ballot in majoritarian single-mandate districts as Karabakh
conscripts have the right to take part in the elections only on the
proportionate system.
There are 33 deputies in the Karabakh parliament. Twenty-two of them
are elected in majoritarian single-mandate districts, and eleven are
elected on proportionate party lists. There were 106 candidates in this
election. Several parties and blocs took part in the Sunday election,
but observers believe that the ruling Democratic Party of Karabakh,
the opposition bloc of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun Party and the
political organization Movement 88 have the highest chances to win.
The Karabakh authorities attribute large significance to the
elections. “The elections are of paramount international importance
for Nagorno-Karabakh,” Karabakh President Arkady Gukasyan said on
Saturday. “We must show the world our attitude to the elections,
which mirrors the irreversibility of democratic transformations
and can promote the international recognition of the Republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has pronounced the elections illegal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress