Exit polls from Sunday's referendum on expansion of the Panama Canal showed that around 79 percent of Panamanians cast "yes" votes, the country's electoral tribunal said.

According to an unofficial count from 33.13 percent of the polling stations -- equivalent to 27.8 percent of the voters -- the "yes" camp had 79.52 percent of votes and the "no" camp 20.48 percent. Panama's Electoral Tribunal said 40.45 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.

The "yes" camp was leading the referendum, which followed the publication of a 5.25-billion-U.S.-dollar plan to widen and modernize the Panama Canal, a body which serves 140 maritime routes.

Although the results were preliminary, experts said they believed this tendency would be maintained in coming hours.

Sunday's referendum on the future of the Panama Canal was unfolded slowly, but it had proceeded orderly, said Jorge Batlle, the former Uruguayan president, who was a member of an international observer team, including 50 representatives of non-government organizations and members of the Organization of American States.

The Panama Canal Authority said the project would double the capacity of a waterway already on pace to generate about 1.4 billion dollars this year. Expansion would be paid for by increasing tolls to produce annual revenue of over 6 billion dollars by 2025.

The United State built the Panama Canal 92 years ago, and returned the waterway to the Panamanian sovereignty in 1999. It is currently administered by the Panama Canal Authority, the autonomous government agency.
 
Editor: Yan