Dominican electoral authorities began Sunday the counting of the votes after the polling stations of the presidential elections closed at 06:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT).

Reports from the Dominican capital Santo Domingo said the elections proceeded normally on the whole, except for an isolated incident that claimed three lives.

After the polling stations closed, the Central Electoral Junta (JCE) began to count the ballots, while national and international observers hailed the high turnout and the announcement that the first results will be unveiled "as soon as possible" on Sunday.

About 5 million registered voters were expected to cast ballot to pick the new president and vice president of the nation, which shares the Caribbean island La EspaOla with Haiti.

According to the latest opinion polls, former president Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) is the favorite nominee with 54 percent of the votes, followed by current President Hipolito Mejia of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), who seeks reelection and will apparently hold 27 percent of the ballots.

Source: Xinhua