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Elections have been consistently held since 1994, supporting arguments that Nagorno Karabakh is more democratic than Azerbaijan. However, the main impact of the elections is to sustain the domestic legitimacy of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and hence its long-term internal viability, Laurence Broers, British political scientist, editor of Caucasus Survey and a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, told American website World Politics Review in an email interview.

Broers noted that there are currently two “parties of power” in Nagorno Karabakh: the Free Motherland party, which was the recent winner in the de facto parliamentary elections, and the Democratic Artsakh party. Two opposition parties, the Movement-88 party and the National Revival party, also achieved representation in the recent elections.

“Despite the discourse and architecture of de facto statehood in Nagorno Karabakh, I think the local desire for independence is extremely relative. Independence was never the goal of the Karabakh movement, and most officials in the territory agree that unification with Armenia is the ultimate aim,” Broers said.

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