Polls: DR president could be re-elected

Fernandez obtained 56 percent of votes based on interviews with almost 19,000 voters at 100 stations across the country, said Andrew Claster, vice president of Washington-based Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.

Construction magnate Miguel Vargas captured 39 percent of votes and populist candidate Amable Aristy got 4 percent, he said.

The poll has a margin of error of less than plus or minus 1 percentage point, and does not include results from overseas polls.

Dominican officials have not issued any results and were still counting ballots from polls that closed at 6 p.m. (2200 GMT) Friday. It was not immediately clear how many Dominicans voted.

Fernandez was favored to become the first president to win re-election since the country's last strongman was ousted 12 years ago, despite concerns over long-serving politicians in a country with a painful history of iron-fisted rule.

The former New Yorker was expected to easily capture the most ballots among 5.7 million registered voters. Vargas is hoping Fernandez receives less than 50 percent to force a second round.

In the late afternoon, Fernandez pressed his way through a throng of cheering supporters and cast his vote at a school in Villa Juana, the capital neighborhood where he was born. He talked with a poll worker as she scrubbed an ink stain off his hand.

"I am proud of the Dominican people," Fernandez said later in a brief speech. "The people have gone to the polls in an exemplary way."

Fernandez could become the first president to win a consecutive term since the last strongman was ousted 12 years ago. He has led the nation out of an economic crisis and overseen major public works projects, including construction of the Caribbean's first subway system.

But his six opponents have played on memories of former President Joaquin Balaguer, who dominated the top office for decades while jailing critics and rigging elections until Congress in 1994 finally barred sitting presidents from seeking new terms.

That restriction kept Fernandez from running for re-election after his first term from 1996 to 2000, but Congress lifted the ban in 2002 and allowed presidents to try for four more years.

Long lines formed at polling stations in the morning, but tapered off by midday.

The Organization of American States, which had 70 election observers in the country, said the election was going smoothly despite isolated incidents of violence.

A former Army chief and opposition official was detained for loitering near polls with several other men on suspicion that they were trying to influence voters.

From schools in the bustling capital to voting tables in the mountainous interior, voters in the country of 9.5 million marked ballots divided into colorful party flags.

Voting for Dominican citizens abroad was also planned in 17 cities in Latin America, Europe and the United States -including New York, where Fernandez grew up.

In a country where politics is rivaled only by baseball for stirring passions, bars and liquor stores were closed Thursday night in hopes of preventing violence. But three people, including an ex-lawmaker who supported Fernandez, were killed in a northwestern province in a clash between partisans on Wednesday.

Both leading parties support free trade and conservative Catholic social values. Candidates also pledged to hold down food prices and reduce power blackouts with investments.

An economic crisis in the early 2000s caused banks to collapse and inflation hit 30 percent, forcing a devaluation of the peso and prompting many to flee on rickety boats to Puerto Rico and Florida in search of work.

Fernandez brought the economy under control with the help of US$695 million (euro450 million) in loans from the International Monetary Fund, but official unemployment is still nearly 16 percent and about a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the government.

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Associated Press Writer Laura Candelas contributed to this report.