BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Agronomist Hipolito Mejia took an
 early lead Tuesday night in a presidential election that gave Latin America's
 oldest politician a shot at an eighth term.

 With about 20 percent of the vote counted, Mejia of the center-left Dominican
 Revolutionary Party (PRD) had 49 percent of the vote, just short of the 50 percent
 required to avoid a runoff with 93-year-old Joaquin Balaguer.

 But Mejia told a jubilant gathering of party faithful that would wind up with 52
 percent of the vote. Election officials said final and official results would be
 available early today.

 Balaguer, with 26.7 percent of the vote, was three points ahead of Danilo Medina
 of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), born 16 years after Balaguer
 joined dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's government in 1935 as deputy education
 minister.

 ``He is our leader, our papá,'' said Joely Guerrero, a 60-year-old housewife decked
 out in the red of Balaguer's conservative Social Christian Reformist Party as she
 voted in a Santo Domingo school.

 A Balaguer-Medina alliance is all but certain if the June 30 runoff is necessary,
 and polls predicted either candidate would give Mejia, 59, a strong challenge in a
 head-to-head contest.

 Balaguer ruled this nation for 22 of the last 34 years, making him Latin America's
 most enduring politician next to Cuban President Fidel Castro, 20 years his junior
 but in power for 41 years.

 He was appointed president by Trujillo in 1960 and was elected to six other
 presidential terms, ruling by a combination of repression, patronage, corruption
 and vote fraud so masterful that some whisper he is a sorcerer.

 Balaguer's birth certificate says he was born Sept. 1, 1907, making him 92. But
 his autobiography listed his birth date as Sept. 1, 1906, making him 93, and he
 says a clerk incorrectly recorded the date.

 He has been all but blind for the past 25 years and inches along in a stooped
 shuffle with the help of aides. His campaign appearances have been rare and
 brief, and he has occasionally appeared to nod off.

 Balaguer voted Tuesday from the back of his black limousine, with polling officials
 taking a ballot box out to the parking lot so that he would not have to walk to the
 building.

 `THE OLD MAN'

 Yet his legacy of massive public spending on new schools, highways and
 hospitals have earned Balaguer strong support among the poor, peasants and
 elderly who affectionately call him El Viejo, ``The Old Man.''

 Balaguer has at times appeared to hint that if elected he would allow his vice
 presidential running mate, Toyota distributor Jacinto Peynado, to run the
 day-to-day affairs of government.

 ``He is conscious of his limits, and he has told me that I would have an important
 role, but I did not ask for details,'' Peynado told The Herald on Monday. ``I stick to
 what is assigned to me.''

 Police and military officials said Tuesday's vote capped one of the most peaceful
 electoral campaigns in Dominican history, with only two people killed and three
 wounded in partisan clashes.

 Last-minute rumors of vote buying and false voter rolls did little to detract from
 what Central Electoral Junta President Manuel Ramon Morel called ``the most
 transparent elections in our history.''

 SAFEGUARDS

 Electoral rolls included color photographs and thumbprints of the 4.2 million
 registered voters, and were posted on the Internet so that everyone could check
 their assigned booths in advance.

 The lone confirmed problem surfaced last week as immigration officials seized the
 Dominican ID cards of about 1,000 alleged illegal migrants from neighboring Haiti.
 The cards, obtained fraudulently by Haitians to avoid deportation, might have
 allowed the Haitians to vote.

 Most Haitians here are believed to favor the PRD, whose late leader, Jose
 Francisco Peña Gomez, was of Haitian descent. Haitian community activists said
 many of the cards were seized from legal citizens of Haitian descent.

 The polls' predictions appeared to be a blow to outgoing President Leonel
 Fernandez of the PLD, a 47-year-old lawyer credited with a highly competent
 administration. By law, he cannot seek reelection.

 Rising crime and a wave of privatizations of state enterprises have left many
 Dominicans complaining that while the economy is booming -- growth of more
 than 7 percent a year since 1996 -- the benefits have not trickled down to the
 poor.

 Balaguer has now run in nine of the 11 presidential elections held since Trujillo's
 death. If he makes it into the runoff, wins and completes his four-year term, he will
 be 97 years old when he leaves office.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald