Although the results were not yet clear, it was certain that voters had rejected an
                  incumbent administration whose free-market economic policies, critics claim,
                  have yet to benefit the poor.

                  As of noon Wednesday, with 97 percent of polling stations counted, Danilo
                  Medina of the incumbent Dominican Liberation Party had mustered only 24.8
                  percent of the vote, compared to Mejia's 49.9 percent.

                  Joaquin Balaguer, the 93-year-old former president who ran on his Social
                  Christian Reformist Party ticket, won 24.68 percent of the vote despite blindness
                  and frailty that forced him to vote from inside his car on Tuesday.

                  Mejia confident of victory

                  Mejia was convinced he had won and detailed his priorities on assuming power.

                  "I am going to combat corruption, disorder and inefficiency," said the
                  59-year-old farm economist who campaigned on a platform of injecting more
                  social justice into the vibrant economy of this country of 8 million people.

                  "This is a stab at the current politicians!" said Rogelio Cruz, a well-known
                  Roman Catholic priest and activist who works in the capital's poor
                  neighborhoods. "Although the image (they) are selling abroad is of prosperity, the
                  people are not living in prosperity."

                  A runoff could be fatal for Mejia's hopes if a June runoff featured Mejia against
                  Balaguer, a legendary Latin American patriarch who has served as president
                  seven times for 22 years.

                  Turnout sees marked increase

                  After working all night, election officials halted vote-counting at noon to give
                  workers a rest. They were expected to resume late Wednesday.

                  "We looked for votes everywhere," Mejia said. "I looked under rocks, under a
                  shrub, under a yucca tree and the stump of a plantain tree."

                  More than 72 percent of the 4.3 million people registered to vote turned out for
                  the elections -- a marked increase from the 1998 congressional elections, which
                  only drew about 48 percent. The 1996 presidential elections attracted a similar 75
                  percent turnout.

                  Police reported three election-related deaths on Tuesday. In Santo Domingo, a
                  76-year-old woman died of a heart attack during an alleged scuffle with poll
                  security guards. A man was shot during an argument over politics in the
                  northwestern town of San Juan de la Maguana. Another man was stabbed to
                  death during a fight after voting in the northeastern province of El Seybo.

                  Mejia and his vice presidential running mate, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, made an
                  emotional visit Wednesday morning to the grave of Jose Francisco Pena Gomez
                  -- the former leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party who ran
                  unsuccessfully for president three times.

                  As hundreds of people cheered, Mejia and Ortiz Bosch held their hands over
                  Pena Gomez's tomb, and Mejia addressed his old friend: "Pena, these hands will
                  be used for the good of the people. They will not be stained by robbery."

                  Mejia vows to end gridlock

                  With the support of a majority in Congress and local governments, the
                  left-leaning Mejia vowed not to let his government succumb to the gridlock that
                  plagued Fernandez.

                  "What I promised, I will do," he said. "I will not be a person who will be
                  frustration for this society."

                  The Fernandez administration streamlined the bureaucracy, privatized state
                  enterprises and opened up the economy to trade and tourism, leading to annual
                  growth rates of up to 8 percent. But most people remain poor; per capita income
                  hovers around $2,000 a year, and allegations of widespread corruption persist.

                  The election was closely watched by national and international observers. The
                  country has a history of fraudulent elections.

                  Balaguer promises easier lives

                  Balaguer was forced to end his last term of office early after widespread
                  suspicion over his 1994 election win.

                  Attired in his customary dark suit for brief campaign speeches, Balaguer had
                  promised to make life easier for the farmer, depicting a rural idyll of people living
                  contentedly on their own crops.

                  In a political career that goes back 50 years to the 1930-61 dictatorship of Rafael
                  Trujillo, Balaguer has doled out doses of authoritarianism and paternalism during
                  seven previous terms.

                  For Tuesday's vote, he arrived at a polling station in the capital in a large black
                  car. He did not get out but had the ballot box brought to him in the vehicle.

                  The Dominican Republic, once a power base for the Spanish conquest of Latin
                  America and now a popular destination for European tourists, shares the island
                  of Hispaniola with Haiti, which holds local and municipal elections on Sunday.

                           The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.