SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- At least one person was
                  injured when supporters of two rival Dominican political parties clashed Sunday,
                  their opposition galvanized by a violent incident at a rally last week that left two
                  dead.

                  The campaign for the May 16 presidential elections took a tense turn since
                  violence broke out at an April 29 rally for front-runner Hipolito Mejia of the
                  Dominican Revolutionary Party. Two members of the governing Dominican
                  Liberation Party were shot and killed as Mejia's caravan passed in Moca, 90
                  miles (150 kilometers) from Santo Domingo.

                  The Revolutionary Party said Mejia's bodyguards fired when someone shot at the
                  candidate's car. The Liberation Party said the members of the opposition party
                  shot first. Police last week arrested seven members of Mejia's party.

                  On Sunday, groups representing the Revolutionary and Liberation parties
                  encountered each other in La Vega, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of
                  Santo Domingo, and began fighting, local police said. Police confirmed that one
                  man was shot in the arm and back, but did not know his affiliation.

                  Liberation Party official Euclides Sanchez said three people, all followers of his
                  party, were injured.

                  The two parties' candidates held rallies in separate cities Sunday.

                  Thousands of supporters of the Revolutionary Party's Mejia, the front-runner in
                  recent polls, filled 20 blocks of a four-lane street for his rally Sunday in the
                  second city of Santiago, 90 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Santo Domingo.
                  Some people hung from trees and balconies to have a better look.

                  The rally was free of the violence that marred Mejia's campaign caravan a week
                  ago, but it was not without tragedy. Hours before the rally, a plane dropping
                  flyers promoting the event crashed in Santiago, killing the pilot and injuring a
                  passenger, officials at the Civil Aviation Authority said. The agency had not
                  released a report on the cause of the accident Sunday.

                  Mejia promised his supporters new schools, sports facilities, clinics, hospitals
                  and roads "so that the whole country can benefit from the resources of the
                  state."

                  "We can't continue in what we have nor return to the past," Mejia said, referring
                  to his opponents, Danilo Medina of the governing Liberation Party and former
                  President Joaquin Balaguer, the 93-year-old who served six terms in the office.

                  Also on Sunday, Medina spoke to thousands of Liberation Party followers in
                  Bani, 70 miles west of Santo Domingo.

                  "I want the Revolutionary Party candidate and his organization to end the war of
                  bullets that they're waging so that we can compete in the field of ideas," Medina
                  said.

                  Medina touted fellow partisan President Leonel Fernandez, who he praised for
                  the country's economic growth of more than 7 percent in the past three years.
                  The Caribbean country decided in recent years to bar presidents from serving
                  consecutive terms.

                  Balaguer also has been on the campaign trail this weekend, addressing hundreds
                  of followers Saturday in La Vega, where his followers of his opponents' parties
                  clashed a day later.

                  Recent polls have put support for Mejia at about 42 and 45 percent, with
                  Balaguer and Medina sharing the rest almost evenly.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.