Bulgarians urged to cast vote

President Stoyanov narrowly lost the first poll and is urging people to vote

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgarians are voting for a new president for the second time in a week.

Sunday's neck-and-neck run-off between the pro-West incumbent Petar Stoyanov and Georgi Parvanov, leader of the opposition ex-communist Socialist Party was called after apathy and accusations of corruption yielded a turnout of only 41 percent in round one a week ago.

Although the president is a figurehead and real power lies with the government of Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the former king, the low turnout was widely seen as snub to the whole political establishment.

Parvanov, a 49-year-old lawyer, won 36 percent in that round against 35 percent for Stoyanov, 44, and experts say the run-off is too close to call.

MORE STORIES Analysis: Why are Bulgarians going back to the polls? (From Transitions Online)

While Saxe-Coburg's movement backs Stoyanov, its junior coalition partner, the ethnic Turkish Movement for Freedoms and Rights (MRF), has backed Parvanov.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday and are due to close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), with 6.9 million people were eligible to vote.

Initial projections were expected on Sunday evening and final results on Monday.

Turnout in the first round, last Sunday, was 41.5 percent -- the lowest in a decade. By contrast, 76 percent of Bulgarians voted in the first post-communist presidential elections in 1992.

Stoyanov, casting his ballot in the capital, Sofia, urged voters to turn out.

He said: "An emerging democracy like Bulgaria cannot afford the luxury of non-voting.

"Only established and prosperous democracies can afford such a luxury. To my regret, we are not such a country."

Citizens on the streets of Sofia were divided.

"I will not vote again," said Stanko Lazarov, 68, told Reuters.

"I am not pleased with our rulers. Pensions are too low, prices are rising all the time. We live very badly, we live in misery.

"Whoever comes to power will not improve the situation. They all give us false promises before the election and don't care about us at all. Why should I vote?"

Parvanov is leader of Bulgaria's former communist Socialist Party

Taxi driver Georgi Stoyanov, 28, said: "I didn't vote in the first round because I was disappointed with all six candidates.

"Now I will vote, not because I've been impressed with one of the two contenders but because if the turnout is so low again, the future president will not be legitimate, he will not be president of all Bulgarians."

The next president is expected to lead Bulgaria into the European Union, which it hopes to join in 2006. Bulgaria also hopes for an invitation to join NATO next year.

Stoyanov won the presidency in 1996 with the backing of the centre-right UDF, which governed from 1997 until last June, but is running this time as an independent.

Parvanov, in his pre-poll speech, called for "a fairer social price of reforms."