Presidential election in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) will be held on July 19, with two hopefuls running for the post, president of the National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan announced on Thursday, July 13.

The Karabakh parliament will hold an extraordinary session at 11:00am on Thursday to pick the country's next president.

Edward Aghabekyan from Movement -88 party and current president Bako Sahakyan are the only contenders for the leader's post, Artsakhpress reports.

Aghabekyan was the mayor of Artsakh's capital city of Stepanakert in 2004-2008.

Sahakyan is the fourth president of Karabakh. He was first elected as President on July 19, 2007, and on July 19, 2012 he was re-elected for a second five-year term, receiving around two-third of the votes.