The president of the Junta Central Electoral, Dr. Manuel Morel Cerda said it was impossible to rescind the contract with Dato Centro because it would mean having to start from scratch. He said that they have advanced too much money to the Dominican computing firm, Dato Centro that won the bid to offer the service of issuing new ID and voter’s cards to Dominicans. The Dato Centro contract is for RD$178 million, of which half has already been disbursed to the firm. Ten months into the process, only a third of the Dominican population has received its voting card. Much of the delays are attributed to technical difficulties related to the service provided by the company. In talks yesterday, the political parties suggested that the JCE hire a complementary firm to be able to accelerate the cedula process. Dr. Morel accepted the suggestion of chosing key personnel of the JCE by political consensus.
