Cupertino, Calif. ? Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina claimed victory Tuesday in her company’s hard-fought proxy battle to buy Compaq Computer Corp., saying a preliminary estimate of shareholder votes showed the merger will win.

“It appears that our shareholders made a choice today, not only to embrace change, but to lead it,” Fiorina, the chairwoman and chief executive, said after the shareholders meeting.

The proposed deal to acquire Compaq had been strongly opposed by members of the Hewlett and Packard families.

Fiorina spoke to more than 1,000 Hewlett-Packard Co. shareholders who crowded into a Silicon Valley auditorium Tuesday to vote on the $21 billion deal. The meeting was mostly civil, but at one point many booed Fiorina.

Walter Hewlett  the H-P heir who has harshly criticized Fiorina, issued a statement saying the claim of victory was premature and that the vote remained too close to call.

“I don’t think you can claim victory until every vote is counted, and I don’t think every vote has been counted,” said his spokesman, Todd Glass.

The official results won’t be known for weeks. The election was shaping up as one of the closest corporate ones ever. Independent proxy counters must verify each vote, and each side can challenge whether the proper people signed certain ballots.

Both the company and Hewlett had swamped H-P’s 900,000 shareholders with letters, advertisements, telemarketers’ phone calls and multiple ballots.

In a brief speech from the back of the auditorium, Hewlett thanked H-P’s employees and stockholders for listening to his arguments.

“For decades, H-P has represented the best of what an American company can be,” Hewlett said, drawing applause from almost all of the audience  and from Fiorina.

Shareholders in the audience, nearly all of them current or former H-P employees, were then given a chance to question Fiorina before voting their stakes.

Some complained about last year’s 7,000 layoffs and the 15,000 more that management has said would be needed if the deal goes through.

When one man asked Fiorina about polls that found employees at three H-P sites opposed the deal by 2-to-1, she responded that internal surveys gave her confidence that most workers companywide support the deal.

Many in the crowd booed.

Hewlett-Packard fell 45 cents to $18.80 after Fiorina’s announcement. Compaq gained 78 cents to $11.14.

Compaq’s stockholders are to vote today in Houston.