The Central Electoral Board (JCE) is pleased with the pace of Dominicans applying for their new ID documents.
The president of the JCE, Roberto Rosario said that 30% of the population already has the new “cedula”.
He announced on Saturday, 23 August 2014 that 2,702,594 people have requested the document, and 2,220,310 documents had been issued. This is about 30% of the seven million cards that need to be issued in time for the 2016 national election.
The JCE has set an 18-month timeframe for the card-issuing process that began in mid-April 2014.
Rosario announced that more mobile units would be deployed. The mobile centers have processed 611,210 people and issued 507,617 IDs.
He said that overseas, 17,498 people have requested their ID and 14,869 have obtained the document.
There are 67 mobile centers and 174 fixed centers nationwide. There are 10 in operation abroad, which see around 35,000 applicants a day.
The JCE president said they have yet to install card-issuing centers in only three municipalities of the country’s 158 municipalities.
The ID cards also serve as voter registration cards for Dominican citizens and will be required to vote in the 2016 presidential, congressional and municipal election.