Dominican incumbent wins re-election: exit poll

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, widely credited with pulling his Caribbean country out of a deep economic slump, appeared to have coasted to a third term in elections on Friday, an exit poll showed.

A survey by the U.S.-based Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates polling agency showed Fernandez of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party poised to garner at least 56 percent of the votes, more than he needs to avoid a June 30 run-off.

Polls had consistently shown the New York-raised lawyer and academic winning re-election outright over his nearest rival, Miguel Vargas Maldonado of the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party, who appeared to have won 39 percent of the vote, according to the exit poll.

The election in the leading Caribbean tourism destination once dominated by authoritarian rulers was marked by sporadic outbreaks of violence.

At least eight people, including two ruling party officials, suffered gunshot wounds.

In the rural town of Bonao, 52 miles north of the capital, witnesses said people fled a voting station in panic when a congressman who represents Vargas' party shot Candido Caba, a local Dominican Liberation Party leader.

Three other people, including a former congressman, were shot and killed in a clash between supporters of Fernandez and of Vargas on Wednesday night in Villa Vasquez, about 125 miles

northwest of the capital, authorities said.

But Fernandez, 54, who was president from 1996 to 2000 and won office again in 2004, told reporters after casting his own ballot in Santo Domingo that the voting was largely peaceful.

"It's a democratic fiesta," he said.

There were mixed reports about turnout but Julio Cesar Castanos, president of the national electoral tribunal, said the voting had been "massive" and largely peaceful.

Just under 6 million of the Dominican Republic's 9 million people were registered to vote. First official results were expected by 10 p.m. EDT.

COMPARATIVE WEALTH

The Dominican Republic is far wealthier than Haiti, its poor neighbor on the island of Hispaniola. But many Dominicans struggle to satisfy basic needs despite a tourism and real estate boom and economic growth that have made the country the envy of much of the Caribbean.

Fernandez inherited in 2004 an economy wracked by soaring inflation, a gaping public sector deficit and slumping growth after the collapse of a major bank in 2003 triggered a deep crisis. But with the help of the International Money Fund, he managed to return the Dominican Republic to vigor.

He has vowed to come up with a "social pact" to address poverty and expand government programs if he won re-election.

But coping with fallout from the stumbling U.S. economy and surging global oil, gas and food prices could soon take precedence. One big challenge will be financing energy subsidies based on crude oil prices of $80 a barrel, given that oil now goes for more than $120 a barrel.

Opposition leaders blamed Fernandez and his party for price increases and accused him of dipping into government coffers to buy voters' support.

Critics have also rounded on him over his pet project, a subway system for the capital, saying the money would have been better spent on social programs.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Jimenez, Editing by Michael Christie)