El Caribe newspaper reports on some 10 bags full of cedulas, the Dominican ID card, that a truck from the Central Electoral Board supposedly unloaded at the Duquesa garbage dump.
A resident of Los Casabes, a community located near the garbage dump, revealed the curious find to El Caribe on Thursday, 2 January. He became aware of the cards after a friend brought him one almost identical to his own. The only difference is that his own card says that his voting station is 01125b and the one that was found at the dumps reads 01125.
The Los Casabes resident, who asked the newspaper to respect his anonymity, had in his possession approximately 300 ID cards that no one would doubt were legitimate cards. He said he was concerned that the cards would be fraudulently used and that the buzos, the scroungers who search garbage at Duquesa, had recovered and kept hundreds more for intentions unknown.
He denounced that the scroungers pilfered all the cards and said that in his community there are now Haitians owning up to their new assumed identities. The Haitians are suspected to have purchased the cards of dark-skinned Dominican lookalikes.
If it is confirmed that the JCE chucked the cards that have been discarded for whatever reason in the garbage dump, the newspaper affirms that there could be an opportunity for identity fraud and other criminal activity. The newspaper report also speculates that the cards could be used for electoral fraud, especially in light of the fact that the ?closed voting station? mechanism will not be in place for the 2004 elections.
Juan Carlos Sanchez, director of the cedula department at the JCE, said that the normal procedure is to incinerate the invalidated cards. He told Cadena de Noticias that the matter would be investigated.
