Dominican president wins re-election, rival concedes

By Tom Brown

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, widely credited with pulling his Caribbean country out of a deep economic slump, cruised to a re-election victory on Friday, winning more than enough votes to avoid a runoff.

With partial results giving the New York-raised lawyer and academic 53 percent of the vote, Fernandez's main rival, businessman Miguel Vargas Maldonado of the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party, conceded defeat.

"I accept and recognize the results of the elections," Vargas said in a speech at his campaign headquarters.

Fernandez's campaign chief, Francisco Javier Garcia, said the president had clearly avoided a June 30 runoff after an election focused on his academic record.

"The Dominican people, with their intended votes, have decided not to leave for tomorrow what they could settle today," Garcia said.

The central elections board gave Fernandez of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party 53 percent of the vote, while Vargas of the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party received 41 percent, after results from 62 percent of voting stations were tallied.

Fernandez inherited a crumbling economy in 2004 when he became president for the second time. The collapse of a major bank in 2003 had sent inflation soaring, plunged the Dominican government deep into the red and provoked a sharp downturn.

With the help of loans from the International Monetary Fund, Fernandez managed to turn things around, although poverty remains widespread.