The Nagorno-Karabakh enclave - contested by Caucasus republics Azerbaijan and Armenia - was electing a new president Thursday, according to dpa. 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.
