The informatics director of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) announced that the civil registries automating program will continue. The program should have been completed in February 1999 but was suspended to give way to preparations for the 2000 presidential election. Franklin Reynaldo Frias told El Siglo newspaper that the program has been redesigned. It calls for the creation of a nationwide database that will enable citizens to request documents at any of the civil registry offices. Frias explained that handwritten registrations contained in 50,000 books, each with about 2,000 records of births and marriages, need to be entered into the system. He said a pilot program would be undertaken at the First Circumscription of Santo Domingo. Frias said the completed automated system could be available in five years time.
