The Central Electoral Board (JCE) announced that it has requested RD$2.0 billion for the 2005 fiscal year, but that the Executive Branch cut its proposal by nearly RD$700 million. Headlines in Hoy say that the JCE announced that without the funds they will not be equipped to implement the primaries as the law establishes. Luis Arias, the president and chief judge of the JCE, warned the Dominican Senate that without the additional funding the JCE would not be able to fulfill its mandate to oversee the primaries for the various political parties. The 2005 contains RD$1.353 billion for the JCE. Of this amount, however, there is RD$302 million that must go to the political parties, leaving just RD$1.05 billion for the electoral board. This represents a 61% reduction of what was requested for operations during 2005. Arias and all his fellow JCE judges were present at the Senate, where Arias told the legislators that “without these budget items, we cannot fulfill what has been planned.” Arias pointed out that during the coming year the JCE is obliged to effect a 30% pay raise to all of its employees, as well as carry out the primaries. When asked if the precarious economic situation would “prejudice” the organization of the primaries, Arias told the senators, “If there are no resources, we cannot hold elections.”
In previous electoral years, the political parties were responsible for funding their own primaries. Last year, mainly due to internal politics of the then-ruling PRD party, which still holds the majority in Congress, a new law was passed entrusting the JCE with the responsibility of the primaries and obliging taxpayers to pick up the tab.