A runoff of last Saturday's partial local elections in Blagoevgrad, Rousse, Omurtag and Tsarevo will take place Sunday due to record low voting activity.

Only 23 per cent on average of the eligible population in the four cities went to the ballot boxes. The turnout at the local elections in 1999 was 55 per cent. This year, the percentage of votes in Rousse was 17.8 and in Blagoevgrad - 27.61.

Contrary to expectations and sociological surveys, in Rousse the candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) Eleonora Nikolova was five percentage points ahead of Geno Genov, supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

"The desire for change prevailed at the first round of voting in Rousse," said UDF leader Nadezhda Mihailova.

In Blagoevgrad, BSP's Viktor Assiyski was in the lead, followed by Lazar Prichkapov, a former official of the old communist party. The two garnered 31 and 26.5 per cent respectively and will go to a second round.

In Rousse, a runoff will take place between Nikolova and Genov, due to low turnout.

The only candidate in the predominantly ethnic Turks' Omurtag, Enver Ahmed of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), won the mayor's seat.

The National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) suffered a defeat in all municipalities, except for Omurtag, where they supported MRF's Ahmed, along with the BSP and the UDF.

NMSII's support in Rousse was for the runner-up Genov, and in Tsarevo - also for the second in line, Daniel Kolev, launched by Sofia Mayor Stefan Sofianski's Free Democrats.

In Blagoevgrad, the former king's party supported the candidate who came out last, with only 5 per cent - Nikolai Mavrodiev.

Since the end of the UDF's rule last June, the core electorate of most political parties has decreased substantially, which is the reason for the low turnout, sociologist Mira Yanova of MBMD said last Sunday in a interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.