Dominican Republic president ahead in election count

SANTO DOMINGO, May 16 (Reuters) - Dominican President Leonel Fernandez took an early lead in the vote count after an election on Friday, with possibly enough votes to win a third term outright and avoid a runoff, the first official results showed.

Preliminary results from the central elections board, based on just 10 percent of voting stations counted, gave Fernandez of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party 53 percent and his main rival 41 percent. Fernandez needs more than 50 percent to avoid a June 30 run-off. (Reporting by Tom Brown, Editing by Michael Christie)