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President Leonel Fernandez was favored to win a third term on Friday, despite concerns over long-serving politicians in this Caribbean nation with a painful history of rule by strongmen.

The former New Yorker is expected to easily capture the most ballots among 5.7 million registered voters. His main challenger — construction magnate and former Public Works Minister Miguel Vargas — hopes to keep him from getting more than 50 percent and force a second round.

As polls closed at 6 p.m. across the Caribbean country, election workers began counting votes, using electronic scanners to send results to the elections commission in the capital, Santo Domingo. It was not immediately clear how many Dominicans voted.

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."

A third time around?

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.

source: SANTO.DOMINGO.com