Skopje - The ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party's candidate Georgi Ivanov was leading his rival from the opposition Social Democratic Union, Ljubomir Frckoski, by a large margin in the Sunday's presidential election run-off, the state election commission said.

According to preliminary figures, Ivanov had 200,000 votes to Frckoski's 102,000, accoring to the commission. The figures were in line with pre-election surveys, which predicted Ivanov' would win two votes for every one to Frckoski.

Two hours after the voting ended, it appeared that the required voter turnout of 40 per cent was surpassed, if only barely. The turnout among the 1.8 million registered voters had been 33.65 per cent with just two hours to the close of polls.

The turnout dropped from 56.8 per cent in the first round two weeks before because ethnic Albanians, who make up 25-30 per cent of the population, showed no apparent interest in voting in an election that featured none of their compatriots.

While shortcomings were reported, there was no repeat of deadly violence and major irregularities in last June's parliamentary elections.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission was due to deliver its preliminary report on Macedonian elections on Monday in Skopje. dpa