The president of the Junta Central Electoral, Dr. Manuel Ramón Morel Cerda is requesting an additional RD$50 million from the central government to move ahead and surpass deficiencies of the provider of the new voting and identification cards. Datocentro, the informatics firm that won the bid to provide the cards, has experienced technical difficulties and is several months behind on its deadlines. The money would be used to purchase new equipment to set up additional in order to complete the cedula process in time to meet deadlines set for the 2000 presidential election. The proposed plan would permit the JCE to issue cards to an average of 22,000 persons per day. Some three million Dominicans have yet to get their cedulas. Only 1,200,000 have obtained these so far.
