May 16 (Reuters) - The Dominican Republic holds a general election on Friday. President Leonel Fernandez, who is seeking re-election, is the front-runner, according to opinion polls.

Here are some facts about the Dominican Republic.

POPULATION: 9.5 million. Ethnically, mostly a mixture of European and African origin.

LANGUAGE: Spanish.

RELIGION: 95 percent Roman Catholic.

CAPITAL: Santo Domingo, population 2.25 million.

GEOGRAPHY: 18,800 square miles (48,700 square km) forming the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.

GOVERNMENT: Constitutional republic with a president and a bicameral legislature, both of which serve four-year terms.

ARMED FORCES: Army has 20,000 active-duty personnel. Air Force operates two main bases. Navy operates two major bases and maintains 12 operational vessels.

ECONOMY: Gross domestic product was $36.05 billion in 2006; per capita GDP $3,850. Total external debt was estimated at $8.8 billion in 2007.

The Dominican Republic has long been mainly an exporter of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, but services have overtaken agriculture as the largest employer. Its economy is heavily dependent on the United States, the destination of nearly three-quarters of its exports. And remittances from Dominicans living abroad -- most in the United States -- represent about 10 percent of GDP, equivalent to nearly half of exports and three-quarters of tourism receipts.

HISTORY: Hispaniola was explored and claimed by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492. The section of the island that became the Dominican Republic finally gained independence from Spain in 1865. The United States occupied the country from 1916 until 1924, when an elected government took over. It was overthrown by Gen. Rafael Trujillo, who ruled with a brutal hand until his assassination in 1961.

Leftist Juan Bosch was elected in December 1962 but overthrown in a coup the following September. In 1965, civil war broke out. In April 1965, the United States intervened.

In 1966, former president Joaquin Balaguer, a Trujillo associate, was re-elected. He won again in 1970 and 1974 but lost in 1978. Authoritarian and paternalistic, Balaguer became the dominant figure in Dominican politics to the end of the century.

Allegations of fraud after his 1994 election victory pressured Balaguer to agree to a shortened term. He was unable to run when new elections were conducted in 1996, but his backing helped Fernandez to his first win.

In 2000, Hipolito Mejia was elected president.

In May 2004, Fernandez was re-elected president, defeating Mejia, whose term had seen the Dominican Republic plunge into a deep economic slump after the collapse of a major bank.

Sources: Reuters/Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook/U.S. State Department/World Bank (Writing by Paul Grant, Washington Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

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