LJUBLJANA (AFP) -- Local elections in Slovenia on Sunday could prove crucial for the centre-left opposition after it was voted out of office in 2004 for the first time in 10 years.

"The Liberal Democracy Party (LDS) has a lot to win but also a lot to lose in these elections," Ljubljana University professor Vlado Miheljak told AFP, adding the LDS never paid as much attention to local elections as this year.

Some 1.65 million Slovenians are expected to go to the polls on Sunday to elect the mayors and councils in 210 municipalities.

"This is an important test ahead of the next parliamentary elections (in 2008)... and losing them would be a strong setback," Miheljak said.

The victory of Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) in the 2004 parliamentary elections ended 10 years of almost continuous rule by the centre-left LDS.

"It might happen that the Liberal Democracy Party gets a majority in municipal councils and regains at least part of its self-confidence," Ivan Puc, a columnist for the daily Delo, commented.

Opinion polls put the LDS candidates in the lead but most of them were carried out in Slovenia's seven largest cities and only represent a third of the country's voters, Miheljak said.

"The centre-right coalition led by the SDS could still win an overall majority," he added.

Jansa's SDS could however suffer a defeat in the capital Ljubljana, where polls see independent candidate Zoran Jankovic, a charismatic 53-year-old businessman, as the main favorite to become the next mayor.

One of Slovenia's richest men, having made his fortune during the transition from socialism, Jankovic headed the state-owned supermarket chain Mercator Group for nine years with great success, but decided to run as an independent after Jansa's government got him sacked earlier this year. "A change in the city's philosophy is needed," Jankovic told AFP, adding that Ljubljana was "a smaller company on the world scale and has to be organized on company principles." Jankovic said he did not think he would face opposition from a likely SDS-led council if he won as Slovenia is set to hold the European Union presidency in 2008 and for that, "we all will have to join forces."

An opinion poll carried out by Delo in Ljubljana gave Jankovic 39.4 percent of the vote to 19.6 percent for the 56-year-old former central bank governor France Arhar, who is backed by the SDS and the ruling coalition parties, and 6.8 percent for current centre-left Mayor Danisa Simsic.

A change is also expected in Slovenia's second-largest city Maribor, where Jansa's close collaborator Gregor Pivec, who is seen as a favorite in opinion polls, is set to end a long domination by left-orientated mayors.

A total of 820 candidates are running for mayoral posts, while 25,240 candidates are up for 3,382 seats in 210 municipalities, the Slovenian Electoral Commission reported.

Polling stations will open at 7:00 am and close at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT), with results expected later Sunday evening.

In municipalities where none of the candidates receive over 50 percent of the votes in the first round, a second round will be held on November 12.