Dominican president looks set to win third term

By Manuel Jimenez

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican President Leonel Fernandez looks set to coast to his third term as voters pay tribute to what many see as his deft handling of the Caribbean nation's economy in Friday's general election.

Opinion polls heavily favor Fernandez and show voters shunning less erudite contenders, since he was proclaimed the candidate of his centrist Dominican Revolutionary Party in January and began a campaign for re-election.

The 54-year-old lawyer and academic, who was first president from 1996 to 2000 and won office again in 2004, needs to win at least 50 percent of the votes to avoid a runoff in the country of about 9 million people.

"I think you can confidently say that he is going to win in the first round," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American expert at Florida International University who has worked as a consultant for Fernandez.

Fernandez, who grew up in New York City, has pledged to come up with a "social pact" to address poverty and expand the government's social programs if he wins re-election.

The Dominican Republic is far wealthier than its impoverished neighbor on the island of Hispaniola, Haiti, but many of its people still struggle to satisfy basic needs.

"He is going to be trying to complete the unfinished business from the term that he is concluding now," said Dan Erikson, a Caribbean expert at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.

"The Dominican Republic still has to deal with facing ongoing social problems, inadequate education and health care for many people and also just the basic element of job creation," Erikson said.