Election officials in Russia's second city, St.

Petersburg, say liberal candidates have taken a strong lead after a very high turn-out of over forty percent in Sunday's first round of voting for a new civic assembly.

Preliminary results suggest six of the fifty assembly seats were won outright, five of them by liberals.

More than thirty liberals have also qualified for the run-off elections in two weeks' time two-thirds of them from the Yabloko party.The elections passed off smoothly despite allegations of vote-buying and intimidation.

Correspondents say the murder of the popular liberal politician, Galina Starovoitova, in St.

Petersburg two weeks ago galvanised support for reformers