The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Luis Arias, complained yesterday that the RD$2.7-billion allotment they had requested for their 2005 budget had been trimmed down to RD$1.3 billion. He said that the organization received RD$1.4 billion in 2004, a presidential election year, and that the budget cuts endangered the application of the newly-instated law of primaries, as well as affect their operational spending. He argued that 2005 is a pre-electoral year in which they will have to prepare for the congressional and municipal elections of May 2006. He defended the JCE as the “face of democracy,” as reported in the Listin Diario. The JCE has requested RD$750 million to prepare the political parties’ primaries, but then a judge said it could be done with RD$70 million.