The Junta Central Electoral, the government body in charge of organizing presidential, municipal and congressional elections in the DR, is in the limelight as the presidential election date nears. Elections in the DR are slated for 16 May 2000, and different sectors have questioned the managerial ability and technological aspects behind the organizing the 2000 election. Sectors point to the high cost of the present elections, more than RD$700 million, versus the cost of the 1996 elections, RD$150 million. The Centro de Asesoría y Promoción Electoral (Capel), an election advisory board affiliated to the Organization of American States, has recommended that the Dirección de Cedulación and the Oficina Central del Estado Civil departments of the JCE be intervened if problems in controls of the identification card are to be corrected. Participación Ciudadana, a local civic society group, does not discard that citizens may have to vote with the old voting card and the new voting card. Well-respected Monsignor Agripino Núñez Collado has denounced that 80% of the citizens who have registered for their voting card have their data stuck in the central server of the JCE and that this will impede them from being included in the final voting list. He criticized that much equipment is abandoned in the JCE headquarters and will not be able to be used for the election. The PLD insists that most of the Dominicans that come of voting age for this election have not been able to get their voting cards. The Reformista party criticizes the process in general. PRD presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía says that while the PLD and PRSC parties were complaining about the political partisanship within the JCE, they were urging their voters to get their new cards, and thus they have no qualms with the process. The president of the JCE, Dr. Manuel Ramón Morel Cerda says there are no problems, and offers guarantees for the election. The JCE has announced it will hold a meeting with political parties to answer questions and give an update on the procedure.
