UPDATE 4-Dominican incumbent wins re-election - exit poll

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By Tom Brown

SANTO DOMINGO, May 16 (Reuters) - Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, widely credited with pulling his Caribbean country out of a deep economic slump, appeared to have coasted to a third term in elections on Friday, an exit poll showed.

A survey by the U.S.-based Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates polling agency showed Fernandez of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party poised to garner at least 56 percent of the votes, more than he needs to avoid a June 30 run-off.

Polls had consistently shown the New York-raised lawyer and academic winning re-election outright over his nearest rival, Miguel Vargas Maldonado of the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party, who appeared to have won 39 percent of the vote, according to the exit poll.

The election in the leading Caribbean tourism destination once dominated by authoritarian rulers was marked by sporadic outbreaks of violence.

At least eight people, including two ruling party officials, suffered gunshot wounds.

In the rural town of Bonao, 52 miles (83 km) north of the capital, witnesses said people fled a voting station in panic when a congressman who represents Vargas' party shot Candido Caba, a local Dominican Liberation Party leader.

Three other people, including a former congressman, were shot and killed in a clash between supporters of Fernandez and of Vargas on Wednesday night in Villa Vasquez, about 125 miles (200 km) northwest of the capital, authorities said.