SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) -- Dominican Republic
                  president-elect Hipolito Mejia has pledged to boost social spending after winning
                  an election on a tide of discontent with an economic boom seen by many voters
                  as having sidelined the poor.

                  "The new government will be based on the program we presented to voters, with
                  a stress on education, health, food and housing," Mejia said late Thursday in his
                  first comments after being declared winner of Tuesday's presidential election.

                  Candidate for the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Mejia
                  garnered just under half the vote. He was declared outright winner anyway after
                  the other two leading candidates stepped aside to avoid taking the election
                  process to a run-off vote next month that Mejia would likely have won.

                  Mejia thanked his rivals for the political concessions and called the outcome a
                  step forward for democracy in the Caribbean nation.

                  Mejia, 59, takes over in August as the first PRD president since 1986. He follows
                  President Leonel Fernandez, whose liberalizing reforms have given the country
                  of 8 million people an economic growth rate of more than 7 percent a year -- the
                  fastest expanding economy in Latin America.

                  But 20 percent of the population is still living below the poverty line, and there is
                  a widespread perception that Fernandez's drive to modernize has not helped the
                  country's poorer sectors.

                  Mejia waged a populist campaign, pledging more social spending and a review of
                  privatizations in sectors such as sugar and power carried out by Fernandez,
                  which attracted a wave of foreign investment but which critics said were
                  mishandled. However, many analysts expected Mejia to tone down some of his
                  more radical rhetoric once in office, for example viewing re-nationalizations as
                  unlikely.

                  Mejia himself told reporters from Spain -- a key investor in the Dominican
                  Republic -- that "my government will promote and guarantee (the security of)
                  foreign investment."

                  With almost all the votes counted, Mejia was just short of the 50 percent of the
                  votes plus one needed to avoid a second-round vote June 30. He owed his
                  fast-track victory to a surprise move by his closest rival, Danilo Medina of the
                  ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), who announced Thursday that for the
                  sake of social stability he would not contest a run-off vote.

                  The third-place candidate, legendary Latin American patriarch and former
                  President Joaquin Balaguer, 93, had already said he accepted Mejia's win --
                  serving notice that Medina could not count on his support in a run-off vote.

                  "The behavior that we have all maintained has been a step in the consolidation of
                  democracy," Mejia said.

                  Like many Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic has had a
                  checkered record on democracy since it emerged from under the cloud of
                  dictator Rafael Trujillo's 1930-1961 rule. The country has a history of fraudulent
                  elections, and Balaguer ended his last term early after widespread suspicion over
                  his 1994 election win.

                  The accord for him to bow out early and for new elections to be held in 1996
                  was seen as a watershed in progress toward more democracy.

                     Copyright 2000 Reuters.