Voters in rebel Karabakh elect new president

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STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, July 19 (AFP): Voters went to the polls Thursday in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh to elect a new president for this isolated ethnic Armenian-controlled mountain enclave.
Officials said they hoped the vote would shore up the region's democratic credentials, boosting its efforts to become an internationally recognized country after 15 years of self-declared independence.
No country in the world recognises the independence of Karabakh and the international community has ignored the vote. Azerbaijan has already denounced the election as having "no legal effect whatsoever."
Analysts said Bako Sahakian, a former head of the state security service, was most likely to replace Arkady Ghukasian, who is ineligible to run after two terms as president.