UPDATE 1-Election propels Dominican president to third term

(Adds near final results, details)

By Tom Brown

SANTO DOMINGO, May 17 (Reuters) - President Leonel Fernandez swept to a third term in the Dominican Republic, propelled back into office by what many see as his success in pulling the Caribbean country out of a deep economic slump.

With partial results giving the New York-raised lawyer and academic enough votes to avoid a runoff after Friday's election, Fernandez's main rival, real estate and construction magnate 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.

A triumphant Fernandez dedicated his victory to former President Juan Bosch, his leftist mentor who was elected in December 1962 but overthrown in a coup the following September.

The first-round win, he told cheering supporters, meant that "no time will be lost in the continuation of our work and progress."

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 40 percent, after results from 99 percent of voting stations were tallied.

The rest of the vote was split among candidates of five tiny opposition parties.