SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Populist opposition leader Hipolito Mejia headed for a massive first-round victory in Dominican presidential elections, but partial returns suggested he might be forced into a second round of voting.

 Millions turned out Tuesday for balloting that will decide the economic direction of this Caribbean nation -- where a free-market government expanded the economy by almost 40 percent in the past four years but failed to lift most people out of poverty.

 Mejia supporters cheered wildly and danced at his campaign headquarters in central Santo Domingo as results were announced.

 With 50.4 percent of polling stations counted early Wednesday, Mejia's party and its allies had 49 percent of votes to 26.1 percent for former President Joaquin Balaguer of the conservative Social Christian Reformist party. In a massive rejection of the government, free-market advocate Danilo Medina of the incumbent Dominican Liberation Party trailed with 24.2 percent. Smaller parties split the remainder.

 While electoral officers continued the count, the electoral council retired for the night and said it would announce the next results at 6 a.m. (1000 GMT).

 Mejia needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off election on June 30. Final results were expected Wednesday.

 Despite the partial count that showed him just short of a majority, Mejia declared victory at his campaign headquarters, where supporters cheered wildly as he assured: "We have gotten more than the 50 percent and we continue to increase."

 The results leave open the possibility of a return to power by Balaguer, a blind and frail man who was seven times president of this Caribbean nation for most of the last 40 years ending in 1996.

 In a run-off, Balaguer's and Medina's parties are widely expected to unite, as they did in 1996 when their combined efforts helped the Liberation Party's Leonel Fernandez narrowly defeat the Revolutionary Party's Jose Pena Gomez.

 The results showed Balaguer's continuing influence in Dominican politics -- despite the frailty reflected in his need to vote from inside his car Tuesday.

 Officials offered no exact participation figures, but Wilfredo Alemany, a spokesman for the Central Elections Board, called participation "massive." Early indications were that the vote occurred without major problems despite long waits, crowding and last-minute charges of irregularities.

 Many voters considered it a referendum on Fernandez's free-market policies, criticized for failing to better the lot of the poor majority.

 "He has governed for the rich," said voter Manuel Escalante, a pharmaceuticals marketer. "The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer."

 Mejia, who bills himself as "The Hope of the People," is a colorful campaigner who offered voters social programs and small community-level public works projects. Medina, a technocrat who ran a lackluster campaign, insisted that the current economic boom eventually would trickle down. Balaguer promised the security of a strong and benevolent hand in government.

 Police reported two deaths that appeared to be related to the elections, but voting was otherwise peaceful throughout the nation of 8 million people.

 A man was shot and killed Tuesday during an argument with a rival party supporter in the southwestern town of San Juan de la Maguana, police said. A 76-year-old woman allegedly died of a heart attack after being shoved by a guard at a polling station in Santo Domingo, officials said.

 Guards also scuffled with reporters covering Balaguer as he cast his ballot from his car.

 The election attracted thousands of Dominicans living abroad, many of whom came home to vote on trips arranged by the political parties.

 The Revolutionary Party complained Monday that immigration officials confiscated the voting cards of some party supporters because of suspicions that they were illegal immigrants from neighboring Haiti.

 Immigration director Danilo Diaz confirmed agents confiscated about 1,000 cards in recent days, but he denied that any belonged to legal Dominican residents. Mejia said he did not believe the seizures would affect the results.

 More than 100 foreign observers, including delegations from the Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, monitored the election. The local Citizen Participation group posted 8,500 monitors throughout the country.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.