SOFIA, June 11, 2009 (AFP) - The grand-daughter of Bulgaria's former communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, Socialist deputy Evgenia Zhivkova, announced Thursday 11 June that she was quitting politics to focus on her career in fashion.

Jeni Style, Spring-Summer 2010/2011 from Evgenia Zhivkova

The decision by the 44-year-old Zhivkova comes less than four weeks before the country's general elections on July 5.

Zhivkova, who announced her decision in parliament, said she wanted to "dedicate more time to my work as a fashion designer."

"One must never say never but I do not intend to run for the next parliament," Zhivkova, a Socialist lawmaker since 2001, told 24 Hours newspaper in an interview Thursday 11 June.

"One of my reasons not to run is the extremely dishonest battle fought within the Socialist party to find a place on the lists," she added.

Zhivkova was adopted by her grandfather after her mother's death.

After the dictator's ousting on November 10, 1989, when Zhivkov was placed under house arrest in his grand-daughter's villa outside Sofia, Zhivkova managed his contacts with the media. Zhivkov died in 1998.

She set up a company exporting knit clothes to Italy before creating her own fashion designer label, Jenny Style.

Ever since the fall of the regime, Zhivkova has tried to keep her family life away from the media, although she has given occasional interviews where she has attempted to justify her grand-father's policies.